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Former Browning Mayor Convicted of Rape

By Beacon Staff

BOISE, Idaho – A man who once served as a mayor in Montana has been convicted by an Idaho jury of raping a 20-year-old woman last fall.

An Ada County jury deliberated for four hours Thursday before finding 72-year-old Eugene Ray Cobell guilty of one count each of rape and forcible penetration with a foreign object.

Sentencing for Cobell, a former mayor in Browning, Mont., is scheduled June 5 in Idaho’s 4th District Court. He faces life in prison for the crimes, The Idaho Statesman reports.

Prosecutors say Cobell assaulted the woman in the early morning hours of Nov. 12 as she was sleeping. The attack occurred at a residence they were both staying in Garden City, a city near of Boise.

Cobell claims the sexual contact was consensual.