Man facing accusations of molesting child a decade ago in Manchester

Apr. 23—A 26-year — old man is facing charges that he sexually assaulted a girl in Manchester on two occasions roughly a decade ago, when she was in the 6- to 8-year-old age range and he would have been in the range of 15 to 18 years old.

Christopher J. Christie, who listed an address in the Willimantic section of Windham at the time of his arrest, is facing two counts each of fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He is free on a promise to appear in court.

Christie was arrested in the case in February 2020, online court records show. The case would have gone first to juvenile court because he was younger than 18 when he is accused of some or all of the conduct at issue.

The case would have been automatically transferred to adult court because of the seriousness of the risk-of-injury charges, which carries up to 20 years in prison when the allegations involve indecent touching.

Records of the case have been sealed from public view for much of the time the case was in court under a 2019 state law that made such "juvenile transfer" cases secret until there is a trial verdict or a conviction by plea.

The records were made public this year after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York held the 2019 law unconstitutional.

The girl disclosed the allegations to her mother in June 2019, when her mother took her to Planned Parenthood to put her on birth control pills for acne.

The mother told police that she told the girl the doctor would ask questions like, "Have you had sex?" and "Have you ever been touched by anyone sexually?" according to an affidavit by Manchester police Detective Antony J. DeJulius.

SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE

DEFENDANT: Christopher J. Christie, 26, who has listed an address in the Willimantic section of Windham

CHARGES: Two counts each of fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child

STATUS: Free on a promise to appear in court, due Monday in Hartford Superior Court

At that point, the mother said, the girl started to cry and said Christie had touched her several times when she was younger, DeJulius continued, reciting information the mother had reported to police in another town.

When they got home, the mother told police, the girl told her that the touching had started in New Britain when she was 5, with subsequent incidents in Manchester and Willimantic.

Christie has several pending criminal cases, but only the Manchester case includes sexual assault allegations, online state court records show.

During a forensic interview at Wendy's Place in Windham, the girl described two incidents of sexual touching in Manchester, according to the detective.

She said one occurred at Christie's family's apartment, which police later determined was on East Center Street, when she was 6 in 2010. She said the other incident occurred in his basement bedroom in a duplex where Christie's family subsequently lived, determined by police to be on Maple Street, when she was 7 or 8 years old in 2011 or 2012.

DeJulius reported that he interviewed Christie in December 2019 at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in the Uncasville section of Montville, where he was incarcerated in another case.

As to the girl's allegation of touching in the basement bedroom on Maple Street, Christie said, "I don't remember, so maybe it didn't happen," according to the detective. But Christie added that he didn't know why the girl would make such an accusation, DeJulius reported.

Christie also said he didn't recall the touching incident the girl had reported at the East Center Street apartment, according to the detective.

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