PHILADELPHIA -- A criminal defense lawyer was arrested after a sheriff's deputy found him naked with a 14-year-old girl in a courthouse conference room, authorities said Tuesday. Larry Charles, 49, has been charged with solicitation, attempted statutory sexual assault and related counts, said Lt. Dan Bagnell of the Police Department's Special Victims Unit.
A sheriff's deputy making his rounds in the Criminal Justice Center on Monday afternoon looked into a lawyers' conference room on the third floor and discovered Charles and the girl, Bagnell said. He had asked for sex. But there was no physical contact we're aware of by the time the deputy arrived at the scene", Bagnell said.
Bagnell said the girl was not a client of Charles, but their exact relationship was not clear. Charles was awaiting arraignment early Tuesday afternoon and bail was not yet set. A woman who answered the phone at his office said she could not immediately comment. Courts were closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it was unclear how Charles and the girl got into the conference room. Though court proceedings were not in session, the courthouse was open for attorneys who might want to conduct other business in the building. |