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Jurors deliberated more than six hours over two days before determining Thursday that 60-year-old Gordon Duane Ballensky was guilty of raping a young girl in Butte. A police officer approaches Gordon Duane Ballensky in state District Court in Butte on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, after a jury found Ballensky guilty of raping a young girl in Butte.
Police cuffed him outside the courtroom and took him to jail. Jurors found him not guilty of sexual assault for allegedly groping a younger girl in Butte, but the verdict on the first charge, because of the ages involved, carries a mandatory 100-year prison term in Montana with no chance of parole for the first 25 years. The jury of seven men and five women also found Ballensky guilty of tampering with evidence for deleting or destroying videos from electronic devices.
That is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. District Judge Kurt Krueger will formally sentence Ballensky at a later date, but moments after the verdicts were read about noon Thursday, police officers frisked and cuffed Ballensky just outside the courtroom and took him to jail. The girls were 12 and 10 when they told their parents what was happening in November 2019 and both testified Tuesday.
One is 17 now, the other 14 and both were in the courtroom when the verdicts were read. Ballensky is a grandfather to the girls. He lived in Butte but moved elsewhere after charges were filed.
The trial started Monday and after closing arguments Wednesday, jurors deliberated for four hours, left for the evening and then returned to the courthouse at 9 a.m. Thursday and resumed deliberations.
“We are very pleased with the verdict,” lead prosecutor Ann Shea told The Montana Standard after the court had cleared out. “We would have hoped to have justice for (the younger girl), but they were both very strong girls and because of them we were able to get justice.” A police officer escorts Gordon Duane Ballensky out of state District Court in Butte on Thursday, Sept.
19, 2024, after a jury found him guilty of raping a young girl in Butte. In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutors said the allegations were “serious and crushing” but the girls had no motive to lie when they reported the incidents in November 2019. “This case is about betrayal, one of the most egregious betrayals that one can imagine,” prosecutor Kelli Fivey told jurors.
“This is about an extreme violation of trust.” Defense attorneys said there were numerous inconsistencies in testimony this week from statements five years ago. They also said there was no DNA evidence in the case, and even though the state’s accusations were emotional and upsetting, that did not make their story true.
The girls told their parents about the alleged incidents on Nov. 14, 2019, and they went to police that day. The case was delayed in part because of testing delays during COVID.
The older girl said Ballensky began touching her inappropriately when she was 8 or 9 years old and later had intercourse with her. The last assault occurred in November 2019 in his bedroom at his house, she said, and she told her stepmother about the incidents a few days later. The younger girl told jurors that Ballensky touched her bare breasts once and her bare buttocks probably more than 10 times at various locations.
Ballensky and/or his wife told police the older girl alleging rape had been acting out sexually, lying and taking things around the time of the alleged incidents. The younger girl only made her allegations after the first girl made accusations, defense attorneys noted repeatedly during the trial. Shea said she appreciated the jurors because “especially in cases like these, it is very, very difficult and they gave a lot of consideration to this.
” Butte police officers are seen here escorting a handcuffed Gordon Duane Ballensky out of the courthouse on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, after a jury found him guilty of raping a young girl in Butte. Both girls and other relatives testified this week that their families, including Ballenksy, were very close-knit before the girls came forward five years ago.
That would never be the case again, they said. “The family will never fully recover from this,” Shea told the Standard. “Their family is completely separated.
It’s irreparable." Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics. Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.
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