Jehovah Witness meeting lands man in jail on molestion charges
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Posted: Thursday, September 4, 2014 6:00 am
Millard K. Ives | Staff Writer [email protected] | 1 comment
A 35-year-old man was arrested Tuesday after he was accused of molesting an underaged girl that he met at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Michael Robert Paigo, of Clermont, is also accused of trading inappropriate texts and pictures with the child.
Paigo was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a person between 12 and 16 years old and remained in the Lake County jail Wednesday in lieu of $10,000 bail.
The girl’s age was crossed out on a redacted probable cause arrest affidavit but it does state that she is in high school.
According to the affidavit, the two met at the Kingdom Hall late 2013 and started texting and calling each other.
The girl said they kissed and sexually touched each other on two occasions.
It is not clear how law enforcement discovered the relationship, but in a phone call secretly recorded by officials, Paigo allegedly talks about his “deep friendship feelings” for her and saying “just talking about them things could put me in jail.”
Paigo is also recorded as saying they “shouldn’t be engaging in that stuff” since she wanted to be baptized.
The affidavit adds during an interview with law enforcement, Paigo admitted to “inappropriate texting and pictures” between the two.