A jury trial is scheduled Oct. 22 in Stanley for a 47-year-old White Earth man accused of beating his girlfriend and then physically forcing her to perform oral sex on July 21, 2016.

James Earl Douglas is charged with Class AA felony gross sexual imposition and could face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Douglas is also charged with Class A misdemeanor assault in district court in Stanley.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, the girlfriend called the Mountrail County Sheriff’s Department and told them her boyfriend had beaten her. Authorities responded to the apartment. Douglas answered the door, said everything was fine and refused to leave the residence. The woman came out of the apartment and was crying. She told authorities that Douglas had punched her in the chest and face and then had pushed her to the floor and then kicked her in the back of the head before he physically forced her to perform the sex act after she had verbally refused multiple times. She later called authorities. The woman told authorities that she and Douglas had recently moved to White Earth from Texas and had known each other for about seven months.

Douglas was initially arrested on the domestic violence charge and then told at the jail that he was also charged with GSI.

The case had been set for trial on April 10, 2017 but it was canceled and a bench warrant was issued for Douglas’s arrest. The bench warrant was served in April 2018. Douglas had been out on a bond order of $15,000 cash or corporate surety, that required him to post 10 percent, or $1,500. The second amended bond order, issued in April, is for $100,000 cash or corporate surety.