Weirdness for Trask.

[Dru]

Woman who posed as boy faces justice

 

(THE BLADE/HERRAL LONG)

 

Valerie Charles is led out of Hillsdale County Circuit Court after she pleaded no contest to attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

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By ERICA BLAKE

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

HILLSDALE - For more than a year, Brian Andrew Newman carried on a friendship, then a relationship, with a Hillsdale County girl.

 

She was barely 14 years old. He said he was 16. At one point, Brian even lived with the girl and her family.

 

It took the police and a routine well-being check for the family to learn that Brian’s story was full of deceit. He was not what he seemed - not 16, and not a boy.

 

"Brian" was really a 22-year-old woman - Valerie Charles from nearby Addison. She used a back brace to hide her body, three socks rolled up in a condom to have sexual contact with the teenage girl. Yesterday, she was led from Hillsdale County Circuit Court in handcuffs after pleading no contest to attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

 

Charles, now 23, also pleaded guilty to violating a personal protection order prohibiting her from having contact with the girl, now 15, after the two met recently at a movie theater.

 

Valerie White, a Hillsdale County assistant prosecutor, said though the troubling relationship was built on deception, it was the age of the girl that concerned authorities. "The deception played a part, but it wasn’t a big part," she said. "That’s more of a moral thing, not a criminal thing."

 

Charles’ plea occurred a few weeks before she was to appear in court to face two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sexual contact with a girl she befriended via an Internet chat room. Ms. White said the plea bargain was offered to spare the young victim from having to discuss the disturbing deception. "We have to look at what’s best for the victim," she said. "It’s difficult enough to be a teenager, but then to have to live through this. It’s difficult to ask the questions, much less answer them."

 

Charles sat solemnly between her attorneys as Judge Michael Smith read off charges describing how she sexually assaulted the young victim. According to the police report filed in court, Charles, who was using the alias Brian Andrew Newman, told detectives she always had male tendencies and admitted that she was attracted to the victim and pursued a relationship.

 

Her deception was uncovered in early August when Charles’ grandmother asked deputies to check on her granddaughter, whom she had not seen in a while. A mysterious female body found in neighboring Jackson County prompted her grandmother to worry about Charles’ location, the police report said.

 

It was at the victim’s house that Deputy Derrick Parker met Brian Newman. The deputy was suspicious of the answers he was receiving and pursued the matter until Newman admitted he was in fact Valerie Charles, court records indicate. In an interview with detectives Aug. 5, Charles admitted her year-long lie.

 

Charles cried before being taken from the courtroom through a back entrance. Charles’ attorneys, Denis Jodis and Anna Marie Anzalone, had no comment. Her family left quickly after the hearing.

 

At the Oct. 28 sentencing, Judge Smith will dismiss two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, both 15-year felonies.