If HB 282 had already been law, Pullan would have been subject to criminal prosecution.

Jasper and Bell helped draft the bill, and represent one of the girls who allege misconduct by Chaffin. The attorneys said they believe sexual predators seek out work at these programs, where they hold positions of power over teens who have limited or no communication and are housed in programs in remote locations in northwest Montana.

Jasper and Bell have litigated such a program before — Monarch, near Heron — where parents of students alleged the program owners, who charged more than $30,000 a semester, were using the school as their “personal piggy bank.” Former students there previously told the Missoulian their treatment was sometimes counterproductive.

This past September, the school agreed to to pay nearly $1 million to families of the clients it shut out of the school with just two days' notice a year earlier.

“The conceptual nature of these schools is, if ran right and done in a manner following therapeutic standards, could be really beneficial to some of these kids, and that’s what you want to see,” Jasper said. “Why not have them in Montana? … The good ones will continue to do well and the ones that are not doing it are going to be out of business.”