By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Prosecutors have amended the charges against a Winlock man accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock-area campground five years ago.
Reginald L. Juntunen, now 24, was arrested and charged last week after he was identified through DNA as a suspect, according to authorities.
Charging documents in the case initially alleged the child was anally raped by a dark-skinned male wearing a hoodie and a stocking cap who forced her into the public restroom.
However, count one of first-degree rape of a child was altered earlier this week to include “or in the alternative, first-degree child molestation.”
The difference is penetration or just bodily contact, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke.
They did it to cover their bases, O’Rourke said.
“It’s a precaution on our part, in case there’s any discrepancies in the victim’s statement,” she said.
The victim was young when she was interviewed, she added.
Juntunen is also charged with first-degree rape, and now, or in the alternative, indecent liberties with forcible compulsion, with a similar distinction. He remains charged with first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation.
He denied to detectives being in the park in 2007 when he was 19 years old.
He pleaded not guilty yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court and remains held on $500,000 bail.
A trial is scheduled for the week of Sept. 17.
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Fo background, read “Prosecutors: Winlock man ID’d through DNA charged in 2007 campground rape of child” from Friday July 27, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter