PORT ANGELES — An 89-year-old Port Angeles man was charged Thursday with first- and second-degree child molestation after a report of an overheard conversation with an 8-year-old girl led to his arrest.
Charles J. Devoney will be arraigned on the Class A and Class B felonies at 9 a.m. Feb. 18, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brent Basden decided.
The alleged incidents occurred Jan. 1 and Jan. 5, according to the complaint.
Basden had released Devoney on Tuesday on his own recognizance following his Monday evening arrest.
Devoney was arrested after Port Angeles police responded to a suspicious activity call from a woman who said she saw him walking hand-in-hand with a girl Sunday afternoon in west Port Angeles, according to the probable cause statement.
The unidentified woman said she overheard the man call the girl his girlfriend and make other comments, according to the report.
The girl’s mother told Officer Zachery Moore she and her husband suspected Devoney had sexually touched the girl multiple times after the mother talked with the girl. Officer Erik Smith conducted a forensic interview of the girl.
The incidents began at the beginning of January and happened as recently as Saturday, according to the report.
Smith said Devoney denied in a recorded interview doing anything illicit. Devoney said he wrestles with and hugs the girl and that inappropriate touching may have “inadvertently” occurred.
Basden ruled Devoney is not allowed to have contact with children younger than 12 as a condition of his release.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsula dailynews.com.
