A Moorcroft man recently charged with sex crimes on claims he fondled young girls in church has a brother in Minnesota who pleaded guilty in December to similar conduct — involving the same denomination of church and roughly the same ages of girls.
Charles “Chuck” Massie is charged in Crook County District Court with five sex crimes on claims he fondled girls as young as kindergarten age more than a decade ago at a local church, the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church in Moorcroft.
The church did not immediately return a Cowboy State Daily voicemail request for comment.
Massie is scheduled to give his plea to the court July 10, his court file shows.
The Brother
In Duluth, Minnesota, last December, a 49-year-old man named Clint Franklin Massie pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct pertaining to young girls he abused sexually between 2008 and 2009, local outlet Bring Me The News reported.
Moorcroft Police Chief Bill Bryant confirmed Monday to Cowboy State Daily that Clint and Chuck Massie are brothers.
The original affidavit in Clint Massie’s case says a girl came forward in 2017 to report that he had sexually abused her when they sat in church together about 10 years prior when she was 5 or 6 years old.
Another victim, who was 23 years old when she came forward in February 2023, told police that in 2008 she was at her parent’s friend’s home, sitting on Clint Massie’s lap when he touched her genital area after draping a quilt over her, says the document.
Though the affidavit doesn’t give the church’s name (just its location), multiple news outlets reported it was the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of Duluth.
Coming Forward
Chuck Massie came forward in May after confessing to his counselor, and after his counselor notified him that those confessions require a mandatory report to law enforcement, according to earlier statements by the Moorcroft Police Department.
Child forensic interviews at the Children’s Advocacy Project in Casper followed starting May 15, the affidavit in the Wyoming case says.
Multiple girls and young women came forward, saying Massie would grope them in church.
Massie, whose court file indicates he is out of jail on a $20,000 cash or surety bond, did not respond by publication time to a voicemail request for comment.
Crook County Deputy Attorney DaNece Day charged Massie on May 27.
Massie faces four counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, and one count of sexual battery, punishable by up to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
