Reese Riggin was arrested June 25 after the Cascade County Attorney’s Office filed a motion to revoke his suspended sentence based on new allegations of inappropriately touching young girls at an end of the school year event at Meadow Lark Elementary School.
Riggin was convicted on a felony count of sexual intercourse without consent and sentenced in August 2016 to a 20-year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections with 15 years suspended.
He was released in November 2017 and placed on parole. He began serving the suspended portion of his sentence in August 2021, according to court documents.
On June 24, Judge David Grubich issued an arrest warrant with a $150,000 bond, including conditions that he stay away from the victims and all Great Falls Public Schools property and any children under 18.
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He was arrested in Spokane where he was attending a 3-on-3 youth basketball tournament, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office. He’ll be transported back to Great Falls to appear in court.
Riggin is a registered Tier 2 sex offender in Montana, which means the risk of a repeat sexual offense is moderate, according to the Montana Department of Justice.
In their June 23 filing, the county attorney’s office included the report of violation from Montana Probation and Parole and letters from parents of the girls involved.
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Tim Hides, the probation officer, wrote that the Great Falls Police Department had received reports that Riggin had inappropriately touched children at a climbing wall during an event at Meadowlark Elementary on June 3.
Hides wrote that Riggin violated his condition of complying with all laws and “conduct myself as a good citizen,” report any arrests or contact with law enforcement to his probation officer within 72 hours.
Hides wrote that his reported behavior at Meadowlark was not that of a good citizen.
One child reported that Riggin had curved his hand up her side making her feel unsafe and didn’t know who he was. A second child reported that Riggin brushed his hand from her hip to her sports bra and made her feel uncomfortable and scared.
Hides wrote that Riggin is a registered offender with two prior convictions for sexual offenses and places of employment.
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“Again, we have very questionable behavior involving employment,” Hides wrote.
Since starting his suspended sentence in 2021, Riggin has owned several businesses with his wife involving minor children, Hides wrote, and he’d received several complaints during that time of Riggin being around children.
Hides wrote that he advised those complainants that Riggin could be around children at his places of work.
Hides wrote that he was recently contacted by a parent from a gymnastics gym in Hamilton that Riggin was around children and had yelled at her when she raised her concerns to Riggin. She wrote that she contacted SafeSport, a governing agency for youth sports, asking that Riggin be trespassed from the gym, according to Hides’ report.
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Riggin had one violation under supervision since his release, Hides wrote, in admitting that he looked at pornography of adult women at one of his businesses, for which he received a verbal warning.
Hides wrote in his report that he recommended an arrest warrant be issued for Riggin to appear in court to determine if he’d violated the terms of his suspended sentence.
If the court finds Riggin in violation, Hides wrote that he recommended Riggin be placed at the Montana State Prison and that the recommended conditions regarding contact with children from the original pre-sentence investigation be imposed.
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“The circumstances of this violation are of concern. [Riggin] is a Tier 2 sexual offender who has two prior convictions for sexual offenses and he is assisting children with harnesses in a private area. According to the parents, [Riggin] had no reason to have his hands anywhere near the girl’s breasts or under arms as the harnesses go around the girls’ waists. [Riggin’s] actions put these girls in fear by the way he touched them. The devastation can be seen” Hides wrote, in the letters from the parents of the girls involved.
Judge Dirk Sandefur included the following conditions his August 2016 sentencing order:
- [Riggin] shall not employ, supervise, care for, treat, or otherwise exercise any form of direct or indirect control over any non-family female persons.
- [Riggin] shall not be on site during business hours at any family business or any other family business he may have a family interest in that has female patrons or employees.
But in November 2016, at [Riggin’s] request, Sandefur issued an order that [Riggin] “shall not hold direct supervisory control over any non-family female employees, but he shall be allowed to interact in public places with patrons of the business.”
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The conflict between the initial and amended conditions has caused challenges for probation officers, according to the county attorney’s office.
One of the mothers wrote that she was volunteering at the sixth-grade end-of-year party at her daughter’s school, Meadowlark Elementary, on June 3.
Near the end of the event, her daughter said she’d been touched inappropriately by the man working the Flippin’ Family Fun rock-climbing wall, according to the letter.
“Her face was pale, stoic, and she was uncontrollably shaking,” the mother wrote.
Other sixth-grade girls made similar reports, the mother wrote, and she informed the school principal.
She wrote that she searched him online after the incident and was “shocked” to find he’s a local convicted sex offender.
“I still cannot understand how this man was given access to my daughter and these girls at school. How is this man, who is known to have sexually assaulted multiple women, in multiple states, able to continue harming and traumatizing victims,” she wrote. “The worst part is knowing that this easily could have been prevented.”
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The mother wrote that there was clear video footage of Riggin “running his hand up and
down the body of my 12-year-old daughter’s sports bra, exactly in the manner described and I want to know what is going to be done to protect her and others from this man.”
Parents of the second girl wrote that their daughter was looking forward to the event but was instead made to feel uncomfortable by a grown adult.
“This man was to keep her safe as she was going on a rock wall. He was to ensure her harness was safe for her to climb, instead he touched her where the harness was not located,” they wrote.
The girl talked to a trusted adult at school, but didn’t tell her parents. After school that night, “She was different. She was angry with everything and everyone,” they wrote.
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The next day, they received a phone call from the school explaining what had happened and that the matter was being referred to GFPD.
After that, the girl asked her mom if she believed her.
“That gutted me, she was more terrified that no one would believe her, that she internalized it. Internalizing it was no longer an option at school, she had to tell us. As her parents, we are incredibly angry. She was supposed to be safe and having the time of her life at one of the last major events at her elementary school and that was robbed from her. She has cried randomly since that day and we have made sure she feels safe, loved and seen, but this has made her second-guess a lot of things. This man took her confidence and security with everyday interactions and squashed them,” they wrote. “We understand that some of the school officials recognized this man but did not communicate with the principal to have him removed. I also do not understand how he was allowed to be in that setting with his history. We don’t want this to happen to any other child or adult; he needs to be taken seriously in our judicial system as well as with our school system. The systems that are as much responsible needs to step up at this time as scenarios as these that have happened to our child could be much worse if allowed to continue.”
Lance Boyd and Jackie Mainwaring, GFPS assistant superintendents, told The Electric that they were made aware of the incident afterward.
They said law enforcement was notified immediately and administrators talked with the parents of the students involved.
“This behavior is not okay with us,” Mainwaring said and thanked GFPD and the county attorney’s office for taking the reports seriously.
They said school staff and PTA members weren’t expecting the vendor to stay on site when they rented the climbing wall for the end-of-year celebration, but reviewed the incident during their end-of-year team meeting recently. Boyd said they emphasized the due diligence and protocols that needed to be followed for having third-party vendors at events on school grounds during school hours.
