Court Says Tampering Charge Can Be Reinstated

The Montana Supreme Court says the state has sufficient grounds to charge a 24-year-old Billings woman with tampering with or fabricating evidence in part by having sex with her husband before falsely reporting that her former boyfriend raped her in August 2012.

The court's May 27 ruling overturns a decision by District Judge G. Todd Baugh, who ordered the felony charge against Christina Nelson dismissed in July.

Nelson also is the subject of an arrest warrant in Flathead County, where she is charged with two counts of tampering with or fabricating evidence for falsely claiming her prom date raped and assaulted her in Columbia Falls in 2009. Prosecutors say that was the first of five false rape claims she has made.