Her rapists were jailed for life. Now they’re free, and she’s in hiding.
A little-known story of the sexual abuse of a woman by a large number of men has received more publicity of late. But for years it remained one of the most obscure cases in America.
In June 2014, police arrested an evangelical preacher named Larry Craig from his home on behalf of the state of Montana. They charged him with sexually assaulting a woman in an isolated cabin in the mountains above the Montana town of Butte.
The next month, police in Denver arrested a number of other men in connection with the same alleged assault. At one point, police believe they had arrested the pastor of Craig’s church alone.
But the story of the woman’s alleged abuse is not without its intrigue. As she told reporter Andrew Kaczynski, she was a young mother who attended a conservative evangelical church and was forced into an abusive relationship with the clergyman she was dating prior to the assault.
The police also found her phone records, showing that she often communicated with the men whom she believed were her captors.
All of the men arrested by the police in Montana will be convicted in court, but for now it’s believed that they have fled the country after failing to appear before a judge.
In the wake of the arrests, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the matter. Within weeks, the Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors were working on a case, but so far the allegations against the clergymen have not been resolved.
“It’s a difficult case and it’s been going on for over a year, it’s going to be heard in a court of law,” said U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. “It’s just a tough case.”
The pastor in question, Larry Craig, was out of custody when the assault was made public. He has spoken publicly about the case since his arrest and has stated that he does not believe the charges against him are correct.
He remains held in federal custody until