Trial delayed for former Missouri mayor facing child molestation charges

[News_Editor]

Trial delayed for former Missouri mayor facing child molestation charges

2011-04-30 05:01:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOBERLY, MISSOURI (BNO NEWS) -- The child molestation case of former Clark, Missouri mayor has been delayed for the fourth time, four years after his suspected sexual abuse of two underage relatives, prosecutors said.

Ken Storla, 54, who was Clark mayor from 2002 to 2004, was arrested in March 2008 on suspicion of having sexual intercourse on three separate occasions with a 12-year-old female relative and having sexual contact with another female relative, aged 11, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

Storla was initially facing 13 charges related to the incidents, which allegedly occurred in March and October 2007. The case has been shifted from Randolph County Prosecutor Mark Fusselman to the Missouri Attorney General's Office, but the scheduled October 2009 trial in Pettis County was then dismissed due to 'technical issues.'

The charges were refiled in 2009 and transferred to Johnson County for a scheduled trial in October 2010, but it has continued until this month. However, the trial was once again delayed on Thursday and is now set for October.

Storla, who was once facing charges that could have carried life in prison, is now facing a statutory sodomy charge, another class B felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison, and two child molestation charges.

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