Columbia Falls man held on rape charge in Silver Bow County

The founder of a Flathead Valley youth hockey academy is behind bars and awaiting transport to Silver Bow County to face allegations he raped a child there in 2019.

Jami Leslie James, 47, of Columbia Falls, is being held in the Silver Bow County Jail on a felony charge of sexual intercourse without consent. Bail is set at $250,000, according to jail records.

Prosecutors alleged in a complaint filed in Silver Bow County Justice Court that James raped a boy in September 2019 in a Butte hotel.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in Silver Bow County on Feb. 3. James appeared before Justice of the Peace Eric Hummel in Flathead County Justice Court on Feb. 7.

James, profiled in the Daily Inter Lake in 2020, said he moved to Montana in 2016 and launched the North American Hockey Academy in 2017. His program, located on U.S. 93 South and also known as NA Prep, boasted nearly 700 students within just a few years, he told the Inter Lake in 2020.

Calls to the academy’s toll-free number indicated it had been disconnected. Another phone number listed on the organization’s website went to the voicemail of James’ mobile phone.

Court documents list members of the Columbia Falls Police Department and Flathead County Sheriff’s Office as potential witnesses in the case.