Tuesday, September 11, 2007

TOPIC: Larry Charles Pleads No Contest to Sexual Abuse Charges
Follow-up from FOXNews.com
A Philadelphia defense attorney who was found naked with a 14-year-old girl in a city courthouse pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting the teen and five other girls. Larry Charles, 50, entered the pleas on Monday, the day his trial was scheduled to begin. Authorities have said a sheriff's deputy making his rounds in the courthouse on Jan. 15, 2007, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, looked into a lawyers' lounge and discovered Charles and the girl.
Charles, who often worked in the courthouse as a criminal defense attorney, was charged with rape and related offenses in that case. After his arrest, five other girls came forward and testified that Charles assaulted them. Some of the girls testified they were assaulted multiple times over several years. The girls — who were ages 5 to 10 at the time of the alleged attacks and are now ages 11 to 17 — testified the encounters occurred in motels, Charles' office, on the street while trick-or-treating at Halloween, and in the lounge and a court anteroom.
Charles was charged in those cases with multiple counts of rape, sexual assault, corruption of a minor and other charges. He pleaded no contest to all the counts. After entering the no contest pleas, Charles' bail was revoked and he was sent to prison, pending his sentencing on Dec. 20. Prosecutors said they plan to recommend a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison. An attempt to reach Charles' lawyer, Angelo L. Cameron, for comment was not successful. A woman answering the phone at his listed office telephone number said that he did not live there, then hung up.

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