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Richmond officer charged with juvenile rape in court for child porn

Posted at 7:40 PM, Jun 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-24 19:40:34-04

RICHMOND, vA. -- A former Richmond Police officer who has been jailed the past year appeared in federal court Friday, over a child pornographic image found on his computer.

Charles Church served on the force 12 years before he was indicted on two felony counts of sodomy of a juvenile as well as a felony count having sexual intercourse of rape of a juvenile for an alleged incident in November 2015.

Investigators said Church sexually assaulted a juvenile female under the age of 13 on Nov. 2. During a previous hearing, prosecutors said the victim immediately reported what happened to the next adult she saw and that the child is “greatly scared” by what happened to her.

Now Church is now accused of receiving child pornography last October 11 through November 4, according to the complaint filed in federal court.

An investigator said that Church said the LG tablet that was found to have a single picture of child porn was his. The defense argued that the tablet was not password-protected and several other people had access to it.

A prosecutor with Attorney General Mark Herring's office has been designated as a special assistant US Attorney to handle the case.

Judge Roderick Young ruled there was enough evidence for the case to proceed to a grand jury.

His other charges have been withdrawn so the federal case can proceed. They have not been dismissed.

If convicted on the initial charges, Church faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and would be placed on the sex offender registry.

The maximum punishment for the separate federal charge against Church is 20 years in prison.

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