An Ocala man was arrested Tuesday after a girl claimed he molested her when she would spend the night at his house a few years earlier.
According to a Marion County Sheriff’s Office report, the girl was interviewed in early April and said that when she was in the third or fourth grade, about 8 or 9 years old, she would periodically spend the night at David Donald Duell’s house in Ocala.
The girl told detectives that Duell, 67, would sleep in the middle of the bed and make her and another victim sleep on either side of him, facing toward the foot of the bed. She said Duell would “start off by giving her a leg massage” and then eventually touch her in inappropriate ways and fondle himself. The girl said this happened “more than 20 times.”
The girl said that Duell told her not to tell anyone about the leg massages or “he would get into trouble.”
The detective conducted a taped interview with Duell in early April where he confirmed that the girl had spent the night at his house multiple times in the past. But Duell denied that the girl ever slept in the same bed with him and said he never touched her in a sexual manner. He also refused to take a polygraph test.
But during the interview, Duell told the detective that he was arrested in 1985 in Palm Beach County and charged with sexual battery on a juvenile victim. He also said he spent time in prison for the charge.
The detective obtained a copy of the probable cause statement from Duell’s file through the Palm Beach Clerk of Court and noticed similarities in both cases. Both victims were 8 to 10 years old, both spent the night at Duell’s house and both were told by him to not tell anyone about the incidents.
Based on the victim’s statements and the similarities with the previous case, the detective arrested Duell on a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior/molesting a victim less than 12 years old while the offender is 18 years old or older. He was transported to the Marion County Jail and held on $15,000 bond. Duell’s next court date is July 3 at 9 a.m.