From staff reports
BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A 22-year-old Dexter man is in the Stoddard County Jail, facing a combined bond of $27,500, $25,000 of which was set on a Class C felony charge of statutory rape in the second degree.
Charges against Paul Leslie Christian were filed by Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver on Sept. 28, 2012. The charge stems from an incident that goes back three months before the charges were handed down.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed in late September, Officer Andrew Duckett with the Bloomfield City Police, along with Stoddard County Deputy Andrew Johnson, responded to a report from an individual who discovered text messages on the cell phone of a female under the age of 17. The text messages were reportedly sent from the cell phone of Paul Christian.
Duckett then made contact with Christian and received permission to view Christian's phone, at which time the officer witnessed at least one sexually explicit text message from the juvenile female.
A safe interview with the female juvenile was scheduled in late June through the Missouri Children's Division, during which time the juvenile admitted to authorities that she had sexual relations with Christian seven times between May and June 2012.
Christian also faces a charge of passing bad checks. A bond of $2,500 was set for that charge.
The range of punishment for a Class C felony upon conviction is imprisonment for a term of years not less than two years and not to exceed seven years; or by imprisonment for a special term not to exceed one year in the county jail or other authorized penal institution; or by a fine not to exceed $5,000; or by both imprisonment and a fine.