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 After entering the no contest pleas, Charles' bail was revoked and he was sent to prison, pending his sentencing on Dec. 20.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.

TOPIC: Attorney Found Naked in Pennsylvania Courthouse With 14-Year-Old Girl

Sources: KYWNewsradio and mcall.com

A well-known Philadelphia area criminal defense lawyer was arrested after a sheriff's deputy found him naked with a 14-year-old girl in a courthouse conference room, authorities said Tuesday.
Defense attorney Larry Charles, 49, has been charged with sexual assault, corrupting the morals of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child, false imprisonment, solicitation, attempted statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and other crimes, said Lt. Dan Bagnell of the police department's Special Victims Unit.
A sheriff's deputy making his rounds in the Criminal Justice Center on Monday afternoon looked into a lawyers' conference room on the third floor and discovered Charles and the girl, Bagnell said. "He had asked for sex. But there was no physical contact we're aware of" by the time the deputy arrived on the scene, Bagnell said. The girl was not a client of Charles, but their exact relationship was not clear. Other sources say the 14 year old youngster is a close family friend of Charles' family.
Though court proceedings were not in session, the courthouse was open for attorneys who might want to conduct other business in the building. Charles said the girl wanted to post bail for someone. After the pair was not seen for a while, and CJC guards could not find them in the area where bail is posted, they began searching and eventually found the pair in a locked third-floor lounge area set aside for lawyers. Charles was naked, but the girl was not noted as clothed or disrobed. The investigation was continuing as police worked to determine whether there had been previous sexual contact between Charles and the girl, her siblings, or other relatives. Charles was awaiting arraignment early Tuesday afternoon and bail was not yet set. A woman who answered the phone at his office said she could not immediately comment.
NOTE: Charles' law license was suspended following his no-contest plea in September 1990 to tampering with public records. Prosecutors alleged he and several others filed false wage claims while they worked for a youth program under contract with the city between 1986 and 1988. His license was reinstated in 1996, according to the state Supreme Court's disciplinary board.

The Sope-Bocks: This kind of pervert needs to be put UNDER the jail. When a grown man, in a position of authority, takes advantage of or coerces a young girl (especially a child) into sexual activity, it should be a capital crime. The scars last for a lifetime -- and the damage is sometimes irreparable. What a lowlife scumbag!