Former Hi-Line band director gets prison for sexual assault

HAMILTON (AP) — A former Butte Central High School band director who previously taught on the Hi-Line has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a basketball tournament in Hamilton.

District Judge Jeffrey Langton sentenced Scott Yorke last week after the girl testified she twice tried to kill herself. Langton ordered Yorke to complete sex offender treatment while in prison. After prison, he will be on probation for 15 years.

Yorke taught as the music director for Chester-Joplin-Inverness Public Schools starting in 2012 before starting at Butte Central in the fall of 2014.

Prosecutors said Yorke provided alcohol to band members at the Hamilton tournament in March 2015 and sexually assaulted one girl.

Yorke entered an Alford plea to sexual assault and two counts of providing alcohol to minors. Under the plea, he did not admit guilt but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence to gain a conviction.

Langton ordered Yorke to pay $48,000 in restitution.

Defense attorney Al Avignone said he believed the sentence was fair.