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 ORLANDO,
FLA. – A 13-year-old girl testified Monday that a Walt Disney World worker
dressed as the beloved character Tigger fondled her breast while she
posed for a photo with him and her mother.
"I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say," the girl said
during the first day of Michael Chartrand’s trial on battery and lewd and lascivious
molestation charges.Earlier Monday, Chartrand, 36, rejected a plea deal that
would have spared him
prison time if convicted.
"
He didn’t do it," said Jeffrey Kaufman, Chartrand’s attorney. "We’re
going to fight it." Chartrand now could face up to 15 years in prison if
convicted.
Chartrand, suspended without pay, was accused of touching the girl’s breast while
he posed for a picture with her and her mother last February at Mickey’s Toon
Town in the Magic Kingdom. After his arrest in April, other women filed complaints
alleging similar conduct.
The prosecutor also rejected claims that Chartrand didn’t know where he was placing
his hands because of the bulkiness of the costume’s paws.
The wire services are reporting that the judge has ordered that the
Tigger costume in question be available in the Jury Room during deliberations
so that the members of the jury can actually try it on, in order to ascertain
the truth of the bulkiness claim. Who says that jury duty can’t be
fun?
from the Houston Chronicle
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