22-year-old charged with 40 sex crimes against a minor

By AJ Etherington

A 22-year-old man faces 40 separate counts of sex crimes in Yellowstone County District Court, including 14 counts of rape and 21 counts of sex abuse of a child, after he called to report himself to Phoenix police in November.

Adam Michael Seery allegedly called the Phoenix Police Department on Nov. 14, 2021 to confess to raping a girl in Colorado and Billings over the course of years.

Seery has not had an opportunity to answer the charges and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Yellowstone County district court.

In November, he waived his right to remain silent and have counsel present while Phoenix police interviewed him. Seery admitted to raping a girl born in 2005 multiple times in Billings while she was under age 16, according to charging documents. He also admitted to raping the same girl in Colorado before that.

Later that same day, Billings police spoke to the young victim about the rapes and other abuses. The girl described how, in Billings, the rapes began to occur regularly and occurred with such frequency she had trouble distinguishing specific details about each instance or event, she told police. She would later state she believed she had been raped or abused over 200 times while Seery lived in Billings.

Throughout the investigation more details arose and the girl disclosed in a forensic interview later that month, how the rapes began when she was just 13-years-old while in Colorado.

“When describing the first rape, [the victim] stated she ‘felt hurt, that something had been taken away’ from her,” charges stated. She was raped again the day after and countless other times since. Seery would photograph the girl nude and film himself raping her in Billings. Those images and videos would be discovered on his phone and Google account by investigators.

Seery also controlled and manipulated the girl to keep her silent. As she aged over time, he would limit her access to other people and threaten to kill her and her family if she ever disclosed the crimes to others, charges alleged. He would threaten to kill himself if the girl spent time with other people. He would threaten the girl often, choke her and call her derogatory names, charges stated. The threats were so real to the girl, she believed he would follow through if she reported him.

When Seery left Billings for Phoenix, charges said the girl told investigators she felt “free” and she “revealed she has nightmares about the defendant stabbing, strangling, and killing her.”

A forensic review of Seery’s phone completed in December confirmed his own admissions and the girl’s account of the rapes and abuse, charges alleged. Text messages show Seery berating the girl and blaming her for his “panic attacks”. Missing photos and videos in Seery’s phone led investigators to file for search warrants to access and recover the data from Google. In the files, police found “child sex abuse material” showing Seery raping, groping and abusing the girl in 16 different videos. They also found four photos of the girl nude while she was less than 16-years-old, charges alleged.

If convicted of any of the rape charges, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison or at least four years to 100 years and a $50,000 fine. Each of the sex abuse of a child charges carries a similar life in prison or four to 100 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Seery was also charged with four counts of sexual assault, which also carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment or four to 100 years in prison and a $50,000.