BILLINGS- Montana Attorney General Tim Fox plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a Billings rape case that dates back 31 years.
The case involves the rape of an 8-year old girl in 1987.
Jimmy Ray Bromgard of Billings was convicted of the crime and spent 15 years in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence.
After Bromgard was released from prison in the early 2000s, he sued the state – eventually winning a $3.5 million settlement.
In 2014, a new suspect emerged when that same DNA evidence implicated 57-year old Ronald Tipton of White Sulphur Springs.
The state matched Tipton’s DNA after he was arrested and booked into jail in Meagher County on a drug charge.
But last month, the rape charges against Tipton were dismissed, when the Montana Supreme Court ruled that statute of limitations had expired.
DOJ spokesman John Barnes told MTN Fox has until Oct. 3 to file a petition asking the high court to accept the case..
