FORT PIERCE – A Fort Pierce resident remains behind bars on charges of sexual battery involving a child and lewd or lascivious molestation towards a child, with incidents happening over a six-year period, according to a Fort Pierce Police arrest affidavit.
James Ronald Owens, 58, of the 1600 block of Linwood Avenue, Fort Pierce is being held on no bond as of July 30 on one count each of sexual battery on a child under 12; sexual battery on a victim, age 12 to 18; lewd or lascivious molestation on a victim under 12; and lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim, 12 to 16, according to the jail web site.
The victim, now in a mental health facility, told investigators that Owens, a family friend and tutor, started touching her inappropriately as early as June of 2019 and said that he had sexual encounters with her in various locations over the years, according to the arrest affidavit. She last had contact with Owens in January of 2005, she told investigators.
“Victim stated that Owens had pictures of her on hard drives and that she had not reported the incidents because Owens was blackmailing her and that he had threatened to rape and kill (her),” according to the arrest affidavit. “Victim stated that she knew Owens had nude photographs of her on his computer, on a black hard drive he usually kept inside the shed, and on a white cell phone.”
Other individuals, many of them juveniles, who investigators interviewed made similar allegations against Owens from various periods of time, according to the arrest affidavit.
Owens told investigators that the girl told him that she was being molested by several men but he denied being one of the men and he never thought the girl would make accusations against him, according to the arrest affidavit.
Owens is a registered sexual offender following a 2009 sex-related case in St. Lucie County, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Owens was arrested on July 24 by Fort Pierce Police and the U.S. Marshal’s Office.