Mans faces 100 years for molestation

Clark County

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October 5, 2012

Mans faces 100 years for molestation

Boyfriend of Jeffersonville mother found guilty of abusing young daughter

By GARY POPP gary.popp@newandtribune.com The News and Tribune Fri Oct 05, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT

FLOYD COUNTY — A Louisville man charged with having sex with an 8-year-old Jeffersonville girl in 2003 was found guilty of two counts of child molesting in Clark County on Wednesday.

John Everitt Dickey, 44, faces up to 100 years in the Indiana Department of Correction following his two class A felony convictions handed down by a jury in Clark County Circuit Court No. 4.

Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said he will be seeking the maximum sentence during a sentencing hearing next month.

At the time the two acts of sexual abuse occurred, Dickey was the boyfriend of the child’s mother and stayed with the family in Gardenside Apartments on Dorsey Court, near the Jeffersonville Aquatic Center.

Dickey nearly got away with the abuse, as the victim did not alert authorities of the crimes until six years later in 2009, when she was 14 years old.

It was not until the 14-year-old went in for a physical at a New Albany physician’s office and listed the abuse on a questionnaire that the incidents came to light.

After reviewing the questionnaire, the New Albany physician contacted Child Protective Services.

Soon afterward, police were notified and the girl went in for a forensic interview at Children’s Advocacy Center on Grant Line Road in New Albany.

A Jeffersonville police officer documented comments made by the child to the forensic interviewer in 2009 and created a probable cause affidavit for Dickey’s arrest.

According to the affidavit the juvenile told the interviewer that Dickey abused her on two occasions, both while her mother was not home.

On the first incident, Dickey called her into her sister’s bedroom where he was ironing clothes and wearing only underwear. He told her to get undressed and lie on the floor where a blanket had already been placed near the ironing board. When the girl asked Dickey why, he said “Because I told you so,” according the affidavit.

The girl said Dickey’s previous acts of abuse toward her sister, her mother and herself made her fear him so she complied and lay on the floor naked, where she said Dickey removed his underwear, laid down on top of her and began to rape her. When she told Dickey she was in pain, he ordered her to go to her mother’s bedroom and get a container of Vaseline. When the girl complained of pain a second time, Dickey told her to shut up and continued to sexually assault her until he saw the child’s mother pull into the driveway through the bedroom window. The girl said Dickey ordered her to tell her mother she had started her period if her mother asked why she was bleeding.

When the child’s mother was later questioned by authorities about the bleeding, the mother said the girl had told her she started her period and that she had assisted her with feminine hygiene needs.

The affidavit continues to describe the second incident in which Dickey sexually abused the child, which occurred several days later.

She said she was playing outside of the home with her cousins, when Dickey called her into the home, told her to clean up and to go lie in her mother’s bed without any clothing.

The child told authorities that Dickey then started performing oral sex on her. The girl said Dickey stopped after she started crying, told her to put her clothes on and shut up. He then ordered her to go to her room and stay there until her mother got home.

The child said Dickey threatened several times that he would hurt her mother if the girl told anyone what he had done.

The affidavit also includes that Dickey has been prosecuted for similar charges of child molestation in Jefferson County (Ky). The outcome of those charges was not immediately available from Jefferson County Court on Thursday.

Mull said Thursday of Dickey’s conviction that it is always very difficult to get a conviction on a case when a young victim is molested and threatened not to tell and doesn’t report the crime for several years.

“I was very happy the jury convicted him.” Mull said. “He is absolutely guilty.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.