A jury has acquitted a former Columbia Falls day-care worker of three child molestation charges, but jurors were unable to reach a verdict on a charge of sexual assault.
Prosecutors alleged Pete Ampudia molested two 5-year-old girls who attended the daycare, but after about eight hours of deliberation the jury found him not guilty of those charges.
District Judge Stewart Stadler declared a mistrial on the fourth count, alleging the sexual assault of a 4-year-old, and Flathead County prosecutors and parents of the girl involved in the fourth count have the option of pursuing that case further.
Ampudia said the toll of the past 18 months has been devastating to his family, and that he lost more than half his friends after the allegations were made.