HELENA — Bail was set at $100,000 in Helena on Monday for Connor Andrew Jones, a former Carroll College student who is charged with raping two women, possessing child pornography, and filming more than a dozen women using the bathroom without their knowledge.
Police arrested Jones in the Denver, Colorado, area in late August.
Jones, 22 years old, appeared via video in Lewis & Clark County Justice Court on 20 charges on Monday. He faces two felony counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent, 15 felony and two misdemeanor charges of surreptitious visual observation or recording, and one felony charge of sexual abuse of children.
Court document say in February, a Carroll faculty member contacted police in Helena after finding "unusual files" on one of their Department’s SD cards. The files were dated from 2018 and upon opening showed a young woman using the bathroom. In their initial investigation, detectives found a clip on the SD card that appeared to show a man they believe to be Jones setting up a camera in a bathroom.
Carroll faculty confirmed to police that Jones would have had access to the SD card, and the bathroom could have been in his apartment on campus.
On March 24, 2020, detectives executed a search warrant of the apartment which was still occupied by Jones. Law enforcement seized four iPads, three video cameras, 17 cell phones, 19 external hard drives, and 60 memory cards. Files on the devices are alleged to contain videos of 16 women police could identify using the bathroom in Jones’ apartment, sexual videos of women on campus, and videos of a passed-out woman who appears to be being raped.
The women in the videos told police they had no knowledge of being filmed at the time and did not give their consent to do so. One of the women told police about another incident in which she accuses Jones of sexually assaulting her.
A Montana Division of Criminal Investigation agent also found more than 700 files on the devices seized from Jones that are alleged to contain child pornography, with some depicting a child under the age of 10.
Jones is scheduled to be arraigned in District Court on October 27, where he will enter a plea. He must wear a GPS device if he is released on bond.
Carroll College has confirmed that current and former students were among the victims of the alleged crimes, and say they’ve been fully cooperating with law enforcement and the County Attorney's Office. Carroll described the situation as “deeply disturbing” and is actively conducting an internal investigation as well. They encourage anyone with any knowledge about the case or have been a victim of a similar crime to reach out by emailing SafeReports@carroll.edu.
