By Pam Regensberg
Camera Staff Writer

ERIE — Police arrested a 13-year-old Erie teen last week on allegations that he sexually assaulted his sister's 7-year-old friend.

He is the sixth juvenile arrested on suspicion of child-on-child sexual assaults in Erie in the last three months.

"It just doesn't go away," Erie police Detective Brett Callahan said Monday. "We're not a big city. That's the hard part. If you break it down by statistics, we're way, way above average."

In the latest case, an elementary school-age girl told police that the teenager had been touching her and looking at her inappropriately for the past two years. But within the past two to four months, he began touching her under her clothing, according to an arrest report.

The girl said the teenager sexually assaulted her on three different occasions.

During an interview at the child advocacy center, Blue Sky Bridge in Boulder, the Sunwest neighborhood girl said that about three to four weeks ago, the teenager touched her genitalia, causing her pain, according to police. Several of the previous assault cases are alleged to have taken place in the same neighborhood.

"Seven-year-olds can't make up some of the stuff she said in the interview," Callahan said.

The girl told her older half-sister about the alleged assaults, who then told her father. The father then spoke to the Erie High principal, who called police.

On Friday, when Callahan asked the parents of the suspect to bring their son to the police department for questioning, the father said he wanted to have an attorney present. Callahan explained that there was probable cause to arrest the boy on charges of felony sexual assault.

The father's response was that the arrest was "going to throw a monkey wrench into the (Colorado) Avalanche game tonight."

Within the past three months, Erie police have arrested six boys in four unrelated cases on suspicion of raping or molesting other children as young as 7. On Friday, a 15-year-old charged with assaulting an 8-year-old boy pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault. A seventh Erie boy was convicted of similar crimes in August.

Callahan said the teenager involved in the recent case is a friend of a 13-year-old arrested in late March on allegations of sexually assaulting younger boys.

Police said they don't think this recent case is connected to the other string of child-on-child sexual assaults that has rattled the town of 8,500.

Contact Pam Regensberg at (303) 473-1329 or regensbergp@thedailycamera.com.

June 4, 2002

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