Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/231222
Sarasota News Leader December 20, 2013 Page 67 60-YEAR-OLD CHARGED IN TWO SEPARATE SEX CRIME CASES The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has arrested a 60-year-old Sarasota man in connection with two separate cases of sex crimes against young girls that occurred more than 10 years apart, the office has announced. Detectives arrested Dennis McGurk of 2835 Williamsburg St. this week after victims reported he touched them inappropriately when they were between 10 and 13 years of age, a news release says. One victim, now 26, said the crimes occurred in 1998. She filed a criminal complaint in 2001, but the case was not prosecuted, the release notes. When the second victim, now 16, came forward last month to report being sexually battered in 2011, "detectives located the original case Dennis McGurk/Contributed photo and noted the manner and circumstances in which the victims were touched by McGurk location of the linen closet, even though she are markedly similar, even though the two hadn't been inside that home for 13 years." [victims] have never met," the release adds. That victim underwent six years of therapy In the report on the case involving the after the incidents occurred, she told the dep26-year-old, the deputy wrote that when uty, according to the report. she interviewed the victim in November, she "found her to have remarkable recall of McGurk is charged with one count of Lewd or the [earlier] events … [including] how the Lascivious Battery, for which he is being held interview room was arranged at the time. on $200,000 bond, and one count of Sexual Additionally, [the victim] was able to draw Battery on a Child Less than 12 Years Old, for a sketch of the McGurk home, down to the which he is being held without bond. Someone you know needs Planned Parenthood • Lifesaving cancer screenings • Parent & teen education • Annual GYN exams • Birth control Planned Parenthood Of Southwest And Central Florida • Sarasota 941-953-4060 • MyPlannedParenthood.org