Greenfield man charged with molesting teen – The Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — A Greenfield man has been accused of molesting an area juvenile in 2023 and 2024 and is facing nine charges in all. He’s sitting in Hancock County Jail under a $150,000 cash bond.
Joseph Alan Mays, 27, 100 block of Berry Street, is facing four Level 4 felony charges of child molesting, a Level 5 felony count of confinement, a Level 6 felony count of criminal confinement and a Level 6 felony count of strangulation in connection with incidents in October 2023. He also faces two Level 5 felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor in connection with an incident in October 2024.
Mays’ case was opened Thursday in Hancock Circuit Court, where Magistrate Cody Coombs appointed a public defender, set a cash bond of $150,000 and put a no contact order in place. Mays is due back in court Dec. 16 for a pre-trial conference. Coombs also entered a not guilty plea for Mays.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Hancock County sheriff’s deputies were involved with a forensic interview at Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center on Wednesday. In the interview, a girl said she had been assaulted by a family friendi who had lived with her family over the past couple of years.
She told interviewers Mays grabbed her on multiple occasions and also forced her to touch him inappropriately, the report said. She told interviewers the incidents would happen once a week, and when it was warmer outside the inappropriate incidents would take place outside when she was working with animals. The girl also told officers Mays would grab her by the neck, often to the point where she could not breathe, and force her to make out with him.
According to the report, girl said the incidents started happening in her early teens and that Mays told her if she told anyone, everyone would hate her, including her family. The report noted the girl was molested when the parents or older siblings were not around. The girl also told officers Mays sexually assaulted her once after he had tied her hands behind her back.
The report went on to say officers interviewed siblings, who stated something seemed off about Mays. One sibling noticed when Mays bought the children gifts, something he often did, the girl would receive a more significant gift compared to the other children.
According to the affidavit, officers interviewed Mays; he said things happened with the girl but said it wasn’t “forced, but things happened,” the report stated.
