{"id":66722,"date":"2019-08-22T18:42:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-man-charged-with-child-sex-assault\/"},"modified":"2019-08-23T00:42:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:42:30","slug":"durango-man-charged-with-child-sex-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-man-charged-with-child-sex-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango man charged with child sex assault"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man has been charged with sexual assault on a child about two weeks after a girl accused him of inviting her into his home and touching her without consent, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The girl, who is under the age of 15, told police she was walking southbound on the northern section of Animas River Trail on Aug. 12 when a man named \u201cRich\u201d invited her into his home in the east 100 block of 29th Street, according to arresting documents. Law enforcement identified the man as Richard Devenero, 27.<\/p>\n

According to an arrest affidavit, the girl knew Devenero as the stepfather of one of her friends. Devenero saw the girl on the Animas River Trail behind Durango High School and invited her over to wait for her friends \u2013 his stepchildren, according to police and arresting documents.<\/p>\n

Her friend never showed up.<\/p>\n

Instead, while waiting in the home, the girl said Devenero asked if she wanted a hug \u2013 an advance she declined \u2013 then proceeded to touch her inappropriately, according to the arrest affidavit. The girl told law enforcement Devenero grabbed her with both hands over her clothing.<\/p>\n

She \u201cpeeled\u201d his hands off her body and \u201cwas afraid during the incident and ran out of the residence,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Another man on the Animas River Trail saw the girl \u201ccalm but \u2018clearly weeping\u2019\u201d about 10 a.m. near the Durango Public Library, according to police. She told the passerby she\u2019d just been sexually assaulted and asked to use his cellphone to contact law enforcement.<\/p>\n

A responding Durango police officer drove with the girl in his patrol car along the Animas River Trail when her \u201cface went pale\u201d and she \u201cbegan to quickly gasp and cry and said \u2018that\u2019s him\u2019 while pointing to a man walking on the River Trail,\u201d arresting documents show.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevenero was noticeably nervous, as I could see his hands shaking and his voice sounded to be cracking,\u201d the arresting officer wrote in an affidavit.<\/p>\n

The officer looked back to his patrol car and saw the girl sitting in the front seat crying with her head \u201cturtling\u201d into her shirt. She \u201cappeared noticeably distraught,\u201d law enforcement wrote.<\/p>\n

Devenero told law enforcement the girl \u201cvented to him about family drama\u201d when she came to his home and that they sat close to each other on a couch.<\/p>\n

He denied touching her, according to Durango police.<\/p>\n

He also said the girl looked \u201cout of it and dazed,\u201d that she\u2019d been \u201cstumbling around\u201d and that she \u201ctook \u2018dabs\u2019 earlier,\u201d law enforcement wrote in arresting documents, referring to concentrated marijuana extract.<\/p>\n

The arresting officer said he did not see the girl \u201cstumbling or anything of the sort,\u201d according to arresting documents.<\/p>\n

Devenero declined further questioning when law enforcement took him to Durango Police Department and requested a lawyer. An officer took the girl to meet up with her father, who recounted a story his daughter told him that matched what she\u2019d told law enforcement earlier.<\/p>\n

The 6th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s office charged Devenero on Thursday with sexual assault on a child, a Class 4 felony punishable by two to six years in prison, fines of $2,000 to $500,000, or both.<\/p>\n

bhauff@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27-year-old suspect denies inappropriate touching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,524],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-sexual-assault"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66722"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}