Ex-fire chief faces new counts
By Bob Anderson
Florida Parishes bureau
August 11, 2012
LIVINGSTON — Investigators brought new counts of indecent behavior with juvenile girls Thursday against a former Holden fire chief arrested and booked Monday with felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile girl, authorities reported.
One of the latest counts against Franklin Dale Church, 46, involves a girl who was 13 at the time of the alleged 2009 incident, said Lori Steele, a spokeswoman for the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Church was booked Thursday with indecent behavior with the then-13-year-old girl in the 2009 case and was booked on two additional indecent-behavior counts in connection with alleged incidents involving a 14-year-old, Steele said.
Authorities had booked Church Monday with molesting the same 14-year-old girl, the spokeswoman said.
Deputies arrested Church, 46, Monday on counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and four counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
All of the counts involving the 14-year-old are alleged to have occurred while Church was out of jail on bond in connection with alleged incidents involving the same girl in 2010, authorities said.
Church also was booked in 2010 on 101 counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, but those charges were dismissed by a 21st Judicial District Court judge who ruled in December that the statute of limitations had run out on those allegations.
Those cases involved incidents that allegedly occurred more than 30 years ago, District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said.
After the 101 counts were dismissed, District Judge Bruce Bennett reduced Church’s bond to $150,000 on the remaining count of computer-aided solicitation of a juvenile.
Church then posted bail and was released from custody on Jan. 20. Previously, bail on the more than 100 cases had been set at $2.6 million, officials said.
Church is scheduled to go to trial on the computer-aided solicitation charge later this month, Perrilloux said.
Church was arrested and booked in 2003 with indecent behavior with a juvenile in an incident that allegedly occurred more than 20 years earlier, but a grand jury did not indict him after a witness did not show up to testify, Perrilloux said.
Prior to that, Church served as fire chief of Fire Protection District 10, which covers the Holden area.