By Paul Ham
Billings Gazette
POWELL COUNTY, Mont. — A former Montana EMT instructor facing rape accusations across the state is facing additional charges out of Powell County.
John Joseph Carlbom, who ran an EMT training program before he was charged with multiple counts of sexual intercourse without consent last year, pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of rape filed in Powell County Justice Court. The most recent allegations against Carlbom stemmed from his time heading ambulance services and hosting training courses in Deer Lodge six years ago.
| READ NEXT: Gathering of legals — ‘Guilty’
State oversight authorities had previously revoked Carlbom’s EMT license amid multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, but the charges filed in Powell County earlier this month marked the first time Carlbom had been charged with a crime in connection to his time as an emergency services supervisor in Deer Lodge.
The victim, now an adult, was underage at the time of the alleged abuse. Identified as Jane Doe in charging documents filed in Powell County Justice Court, she reported the abuse to authorities in 2025, in the wake of Carlbom being charged with raping an underage girl in Billings.
“The defendant (Carlbom) was in a supervisory position regarding Jane Doe, who was a student intern at defendant’s places of work,” wrote Powell County Ellen Donohue in the criminal complaint filed against Carlbom.
Carlbom has been charged with rape in four different counties across the state in the past year, but his documented history of sexual misconduct dates back to at least 2019.
Leading up to his arrest in November, Carlbom worked as an EMT for agencies across the state. He had leadership roles in EMS for Wolf Point and Poplar on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and working for Northeast Montana Health Services.
While living in western Montana in the 2000s, according to charging documents later filed in Cascade County District Court, Carlbom worked in Choteau and Cascade counties, including a position at the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center.
On the Fort Peck Reservation, Carlbom would later tell an investigator with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry that he was reprimanded for massaging his coworkers.
As head of Powell County EMS in 2019 and 2020, allegations mounted of him sexually harassing and manipulating his subordinates and students in his EMT courses. Those accusations resulted in several women filing complaints with state labor and medical oversight agencies.
Carlbom used his position of authority to badger students and colleagues for sex, touch them without their consent and send them inappropriate photos of himself, according to a final report published by DLI and the Montana Board of Medical Examiners.
In total, the board documented nine instances of misconduct on the part of Carlbom. That included testimony from seven students who attended courses hosted by Carlbom.
In November, according to Powell County charging documents, a woman reported to the Great Falls Police Department that Carlbom had started speaking with her when she was a minor, convincing her to attend his EMT training course in 2020.
Around that same time, Carlbom invited the girl to his home. While there, Carlbom allegedly goaded the girl into letting him give her a massage before raping her. Carlbom resigned from his role at Powell EMS in the summer of 2020.
In 2023, at the close of the DLI and Montana Board of Medical Examiners investigation, the board suspended Carlbom’s AEMT license. The suspension ostensibly barred Carlbom from practicing or teaching emergency medicine, but he continued to make a living in the industry by heading Whiteline Consulting and Training.
Through the company’s now defunct website, he marketed himself as a knowledgeable instructor to prospective students. Whiteline offered classes across the state until the first criminal charge against Carlbom was filed in Yellowstone County.
Carlbom, a Butte resident, attended a Billings EMT graduation ceremony in the summer of 2025. During that visit, Carlbom raped an underage girl, according to charging documents filed in Yellowstone County District Court. Carlbom allegedly exchanged thousands of messages with the girl before convincing her to sneak out of her home, then taking her to a local hotel.
On Oct. 31, Yellowstone County prosecutors charged Carlbom with rape, filing a $250,000 warrant for his arrest. Authorities booked Carlbom, a Butte resident, into Butte Detention Center three days after the charges were filed. That same day, he was charged in Sanders County District Court with two counts of rape.
Within days of being charged in Billings, Pondera County prosecutors charged Carlbom with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, alleging he brought the same girl he was accused of abusing in Billings to Plains.
He was working security for the Tri-County Fair. The girl later told law enforcement that Carlbom sexually abused her while she was staying with him, court documents said. The charges followed the teen disclosing the alleged abuse to authorities.
Earlier this month, Carlbom pleaded not guilty to accusations of child sex abuse in Cascade County District Court. County prosecutors are alleging that Carlbom raped an underage girl while he was living in Great Falls in the 2000s.
Carlbom has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges filed against him. If convicted of sexual intercourse without consent, he could be sentenced up to life in prison.
© 2026 the Billings Gazette (Billings, Mont.).
Visit www.billingsgazette.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.