Dale Carter, a candidate for Clay County Board of County Commissioners, has had his share of legal troubles. Court records from Clay, Duval and St. Johns counties show Carter had been charged with numerous criminal offenses, which he says are all “settled.”
But in an allegation that was never settled through the court system, Carter was accused in 2012 of sexually assaulting an underage girl over a period of several years, the Florida Center for Government Accountability reports.
In 2012, the then-22-year-old woman reported to Clay County sheriff’s officers that Carter, 20 years her senior, had become a trusted figure in her life early in her childhood and had begun sexually assaulting her multiple times per week when she was 14 or 15.
A detective’s report said there was probable cause to charge Carter with lewd and lascivious battery on a victim under 16 years old, but the State Attorney’s Office determined that the statute of limitations had expired on the crime and no charges were filed.
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