$150,000 Bail for Man Charged With Sexual Abuse of Children

31 year-old Steven Forgey is in the Missoula County Jail on $150,000 bail after having been arrested on Tuesday, October 3 and charged with two felonies; attempted sexual abuse of children and tampering with a communications device.

Deputy Missoula County Attorney Brian Lowney asked Judge Marie Anderson for $150,000 bond.

“The State is recommending that the court set bail at $150,000,” said Lowney. “The reasons are largely surrounding the defendant’s danger to the community. As the court may or may not recall from the affidavit, the allegations here involve the defendant having sexually explicit conversations with a 12 year-old in this case. I won’t go into the graphic nature of the conversations, but suffice it to say their intent is clear.”

Lowney said when a sheriff’s detective attempted to view the messages on Forgey’s phone, all the messages were deleted.

“The second charge is that the State is alleging that he turned over his cell phone for examination by law enforcement, but when given the opportunity, he remote-wiped that phone from his house, which he admitted to, and obviously a lot of this case centers around electronic communication and his willingness to destroy that evidence.”

Judge Andersen set bail at $150,000 and ordered Forgey to appear again later on October 17.