A Carthage man will be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings following the dismissal this week of child sexual-abuse charges he was facing in Jasper County.
Doroteo Chavez, 32, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on charges of first-degree statutory rape, first-degree child molestation and two counts of attempted statutory rape.
But the charges against Chavez were dismissed at the hearing at the request of the Jasper County prosecutor’s office when the victim, or victims, failed to show up to testify against him for a third time.
The defendant was accused of sexually molesting a girl under the age of 14 beginning in the fall of 2002 in Carthage, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed by an investigator with the Carthage Police Department.
The alleged abuse continued in the spring of 2004.
The affidavit further alleges that in 2007, Chavez attempted to persuade a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him and forcibly attempted to rape a 12-year-old girl.
Chavez, an illegal alien, has been in custody at the Jasper County Jail since charges were filed against him in May of this year. Court records indicate he is to be held for deportation.
