Opening statements made in Helena woman's trial on sexual abuse, tampering charges

Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of a Helena woman charged in Lewis and Clark County with multiple felony counts, including sexual abuse of children.

Wisper Percival was charged in February 2024 with five felony counts of sexual abuse of children, felony custodial interference, three felony counts of tampering with a witness or informant, misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children and misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer or other public servant.

She sat and listened Tuesday as the jury heard opening statements from Lewis and Clark County prosecutor Fallon Stanton, defense attorney Brent Flowers, and start-of-trial remarks from Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Michael McMahon.

The trial is scheduled for five days.

"By all appearances, it seems that the defendant decided to relive her high school years through her children that summer," Stanton said.

She said a majority of the evidence the jurors would hear came from videos and chats between Percival and juveniles.

"Now (one of the juveniles) has a concerned mother," she said. "... She notices that after (the juvenile) starts spending more time with the defendant, he starts getting in trouble. Staying out late, not coming home or coming home drunk."

Inappropriate images and videos of teens will be used as evidence during the trial, the attorneys said. But Flowers said there would be no testimony that Percival took any of the pictures nor sent any of the images.

Flowers noted the case "hinged" on a custody dispute involving a state witness, the mother.

"Rather than just fight this custody dispute out of the courts, she instead chose to weaponize it and use the police to settle the custody dispute," Flowers said. "I said this case centers around (the juvenile's mother) because every witness — the children, the parents, the police officer — were contacted by (the mother) months, many months later and told them Wisper's doing all this."

Though the mother was named in court, the Independent Record is not naming her in order to protect the identity of the juveniles involved.

A Lewis and Clark County sheriff's deputy was dispatched in August 2023 for a report of custodial interference, court documents state.

A witness also told a detective there would be child pornography depicting someone believed to be the ex-girlfriend of the complainant's son in her underwear on Percival's cellphone.

It was further alleged Percival encouraged juveniles to drink alcohol and that she told a second witness to lie in their testimony during a hearing in Jefferson County about the complainant's son being at her home.

In an unrelated case, Percival and her husband, Nicholas Percival, also face elder exploitation charges. A hearing in that case is set for July 8.