A Kalispell man has denied sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl less than a year after the Montana Supreme Court overturned his previous assault conviction.
Thomas Richard Nichols, 26, pleaded not guilty to sexual assault at an arraignment in Flathead County District Court on Jan. 7.
According to court documents, the Flathead County Sheriffs Office received a report of a sexual assault on Dec. 2, 2015. A deputy talked to a woman who said her 5-year-old daughter had stayed at Nichols house on multiple occasions between June and December 2015. Following a recent visit, the young girl told her mother that Nichols had touched her in a sexual manner. The girl gave authorities the same account during a forensic interview and Nichols was arrested on Dec. 11.