Whitefish rapist sentenced to 7 years

A 27-year-old Whitefish rapist was sentenced Thursday in Flathead District Court to seven years in prison and 13 years of probation.

Timothy House initially pleaded no contest to the felony rape charge, but during the sentencing hearing Judge Stewart Stadler said state law prevented House from making that plea to that charge.

House’s no contest plea was withdrawn and a guilty by way of Alford plea was entered in its place.

House claims he has no memory of the Feb. 25, 2007, incident in which he raped a 16-year-old girl.

A sexual assault exam was completed at the time of the crime, but the results did not match anyone then in the state DNA index.

House eventually was charged in 2012 after he became a suspect in a Conrad rape case and a DNA sample was taken, which then created a match with the 2007 crime.

The pre-sentence investigation report became a controversial item during Thursday’s hearing, with defense attorney Nicholas Aemisegger requesting several sections be taken out due to conclusions made by the report writer, lack of attribution of claims regarding House’s behavior in jail and other items.

Aemisegger called the report biased and sloppy. He in particular noted that while the report writer went out of their way to include all negative aspects of House, the writer did not get a complete view of House — as is the basis of such reports — by not contacting House’s parents or any members of his family.

“In all my years of practice, this is the worst PSI I have ever seen,” he said.

A tearful House spoke only once during the hearing, to say just two words.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

House is not eligible for parole during his seven years in prison. In addition to the jail time and probation, he was ordered to pay a $160 surcharge, an $800 public defender fee and a $1,000 fine as well as some other fees.