Slidell man charged with molestation

By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News
Published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:27 AM CDT

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A three-month investigation by Slidell police has led to the arrest of a Slidell man on a charge of molesting an 11-year-old girl in February.

Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz said Joseph W. Bayona, 47, 701 Magnolia St., turned himself in to police on June 6.

Foltz said the department received a complaint of molestation on Feb. 13, when the father of the victim reported the incident. The victim’s family had come to Slidell from Middleburg, Fla., Feb. 1 to stay with Bayona for the Mardi Gras holiday.

Bayona

After the family went back to Florida on Feb. 6, the victim told her father that while she was sleeping on Bayona’s sofa on Feb. 5, she woke up to find Bayona lying next to her and “touching her inappropriately.”

A Slidell police officer and a forensic investigator from the Covington Children’s Advocacy Center flew to Florida, where they interviewed the victim and her family. Foltz said because of the distance and getting the family together at the same place and the same time took time, the investigation took longer than expected.

Upon returning to Slidell, investigators interviewed Bayona several times, and they obtained an arrest warrant for Bayona. When he found out about the arrest warrant, Bayona turned himself in.

“He has been very cooperative with us,” Foltz said.

Bayona is in the St. Tammany Parish Jail awaiting a bond hearing.

If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison, with the first two years to be served without parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

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Comments

2 comment(s)

R. Side wrote on Jun 12, 2008 1:21 PM:

" I have a lot of respect for this victims father. I am confident it took a lot of restraint to keep him from dealing out justice himself. Though his daughter was robbed of her innocence, it would have been worse for her to loose her innocence and her father as well.
I hope this scum rots in jail. "

C. Bowen wrote on Jun 11, 2008 2:27 PM:

" For crimes like this it just doesn't make sense to hand down a 25 year sentence and only the first two years have to be served and then they are turned loose to prey again. God help us. "

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