Authorities charge Grassy man with molesting two teen girls

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A 68-year-old man was accused this week with molesting two minor teenage girls in a Bollinger County campground.

Charles P. Davis, of Grassy, Mo., was charged Wednesday with felony first-degree statutory sodomy, first-degree child molestation and sexual misconduct with a child.

Since the summer of 2005, Davis molested a 13-year-old girl who would visit him at his camper in Twin Bridges Campground on Highway 34, according to a probable cause statement filed in the case.

During an interview with Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators, Davis denied the girl's accusations, but stopped short of calling her a liar.

"If I did touch her I didn't mean to. When I was wrestling I might have touched her," Davis said, according to the statement.

Davis suggested the girl may have fantasized the molestation, and claimed that if he did touch her, sex was not on his mind, the statement read.

"If they want to go to court and face the embarrassment then so bet it or I'll pack my stuff, leave and never have contact with them, or you can give me a gun and I'll kill myself," Davis said to investigators, according to the statement.

The girl also told officials that Davis had asked her to watch a pornographic movie with him, which she refused to do. During a search of his camper, police found a pornographic videotape despite the defendant saying he had none, according to the statement.

The defendant is also accused of molesting for about a month a 15-year-old girl in his camper, who said Davis asked her to have sex with him, the statement said.

Bond for the defendant was set at $200,000 cash only.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127