A Crook County prosecutor this week filed four more charges against a Moorcroft man accused of touching little girls sexually during church services after two more alleged victims have come forward.
Charles “Chuck” Massie, 64, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Gillette to the total of nine charges he now faces. He originally faced up to 81 years in prison, but now could get up to 156 if convicted on all charges.
Now his case may advance to trial or to plea negotiations, as Massie chooses.
Wearing black spectacles and a white shirt and sitting next to his attorney, Massie gave his nine not-guilty pleas Thursday in Gillette to District Court Judge Stuart Healy.
He consented to have the hearing in Gillette though he’s charged out of the Sundance-based Crook County District Court. The two courts are within the same state judicial district.
Crook County Deputy Attorney DaNece Day originally charged Massie on May 27 with four counts of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of sexual battery after Massie confessed to a counselor that he’d been sexually inappropriate with young girls, according to court documents and earlier statements by the Moorcroft Police Department.
He allegedly confessed to a counselor that “I’m the terrible one,” according to court documents.
That was about five months after Massie’s brother, Clint Franklin Massie, pleaded guilty to similar crimes in Duluth, Minnesota. The girls who came forward in Clint Franklin Massie’s case were roughly the same ages as the ones Chuck Massie is accused of fondling, and the church denomination was the same, court documents show.
An investigation by Moorcroft Police Department Officer Trayton Dawson followed, and Dawson heard reports of Massie touching at least four girls inappropriately, sometimes through their clothing and sometimes under their underwear; penetrating some with his fingers, Dawson’s evidentiary affidavit alleges.
Police Chief Bill Bryant, Officer Kendall Lossing and Casper-based Children’s Advocacy Project forensic interviewer Cheri Frimml also contributed to the investigation, says the document.
‘Why Does It Have To Be Me?’
Dawson kept investigating.
On May 19, he contacted two females to tell them that he’d heard their family had been victimized, and to ask if Massie had taken any sexual liberties with them, says the document.
Both females said no, but Massie had touched their sister, reportedly.
The sister, now a teenager, agreed to speak with Frimml at the Children’s Advocacy Project in Casper on June 12. She told Frimml that Massie that when she was about 7 or 8, Massie gave her candy in church then “stuck his hands in her pants,” the affidavit relates from that interview.
She’d get up from her seat in church, go to the bathroom and cry, the girl reportedly told Frimml.
“Why does it have to be me?” she asked herself, according to Dawson’s account of that interview.
The document says the girl also detailed incidents where Massie touched her at his business, a Moorcroft bowling alley.
On May 27, a local father called Bryant to say his daughter had reported to her parents about three years prior (at age 11) that Massie had kissed her during a “girls’ night” style sleepover that had happened at his home when she was 9.
His wife was out of town and he invited the girl to sleep in his bed, but she stayed near the other girls and avoided him “at all costs,” the girl reportedly told Frimml during her own June 9 interview in Casper.
Church Statement
The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church of Moorcroft, where many — but not all — of the alleged sex crimes are reported to have happened told Cowboy State Daily that it is working with authorities during this “sorrowful and troubling time for everyone in the congregation and also the local community.”
“We are continuing to pray for all those involved,” a church spokesman wrote in a June statement, sent via email.
The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church has guidelines that the congregation and church government “earnestly endeavor to follow for the prevention of violence, harassment and sexual abuse; and to help all those involved when an incident has occurred,” the statement says.
The spokesman wrote that the church respects the law and expertise of the authorities, and recognizes that their services are available to help people.
“Again, we want to emphasize our confidence in the social and judicial authorities and the help that health care professionals, the justice system, and the law enforcement can give,” says the statement. “We encourage all members of the congregation, like all citizens, to use these functions. Again, our sincere thoughts and prayers remain with all who are affected by such matters within our community.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
