A convicted sex offender from Kalispell is back in Flathead County jail after being charged with another sex crime.
Mac McKinley Brooks, 25, was charged with felony sexual abuse of children on Dec. 18. He pleaded not guilty to that charge during an arraignment hearing in Flathead County District Court on Jan. 2.
Brooks was convicted of sexual assault in 2010, after pleading guilty by way of Alford to a 2009 charge. An Alford plea means the individual does not admit to the act, but acknowledges that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict.
As part of that plea agreement, two other charges – rape and unlawful transactions with children – were dropped in exchange for Brooks’ guilty plea.
The 2009 case stated that Brooks, who was 21 at the time, raped his brother’s 13-year-old ex-girlfriend.
Brooks was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with all that time suspended, and was designated as a Level 1 sex offender. He violated his probation in 2011 when he was convicted of theft, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with half of that time suspended.
The latest charge alleges that Brooks asked for and received nude and semi-nude pictures on his cell phone of a 15-year-old girl.
According to charging documents, a man called the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on July 26 to report that someone named Mac texted his 15-year-old daughter, asking for nude photos.
When detectives called the number listed for Mac, the person who answered allegedly identified himself as Mac Brooks. Prosecutors say Brooks said he asked for the photographs of the girl, and that he had received one of her in her bra.
In an interview with detectives, the girl said she met Brooks while walking home and gave him her number. They began texting and calling one another for about a month, the girl said. She told investigators that she had told Brooks in a text message that she was 15.
In July, prosecutors say Brooks sent the girl a text asking for a nude picture of herself, in exchange for him purchasing cigarettes and alcohol. She allegedly sent the photo.
Brooks pleaded not guilty to the sex abuse charge, and remains incarcerated at the Flathead County Detention Center.