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'Burglar' charged with molesting 14-year-old girl

The 21-year-old man was caught after a Hernando man returned home and saw a suspicious car driving away from his home.

By DUANE BOURNE
Published April 25, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - A 21-year-old man was arrested and charged with burglary after a homeowner saw him dashing out of a house in a neighborhood off Veterans Avenue on Friday. Turns out Michael L. Chapman was no mere burglar, however. A Hernando County Sheriff's report said Chapman went to the house to have sex with the homeowner's teen daughter.

The homeowner chased Chapman a quarter of a mile on Friday afternoon before he caught him long enough for deputies to arrive. The homeowner later learned that Chapman, an unemployed laborer, had been invited into the house by his daughter.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office said Chapman had sex with the 14-year-old girl and bolted out of a back door when the homeowner returned home around 1:35 p.m. and saw him.

Chapman, of 806 Shayne St., was charged with lewd and lascivious battery and burglary of an occupied dwelling. He was being held at the Hernando County Jail on $15,000 bail.

According to a sheriff's report, the victim's father came home Friday afternoon and saw a suspicious white car parked in the road near his house. The vehicle took off as the homeowner approached, the report said.

When the homeowner entered the house, he saw someone run out of the back door and chased him to Fort Dade and Parrish avenues, where sheriff's deputies responded. Upon his arrest, Chapman denied being inside the house. The man's daughter, who was alone inside her bedroom at the time, told a detective she did not know Chapman or if he was ever inside the house.

But while Chapman was in custody for the burglary charge, sheriff's deputies on Sunday learned that the girl's story changed. She said she invited Chapman inside, where they engaged in sexual intercourse.

[Last modified April 25, 2005, 18:12:58]