A Macon-Bibb County firefighter jailed Wednesday on a child molestation charge is accused of inappropriately touching a 3-year-old girl in January, according to an arrest warrant released Thursday.
Jerald Lavel Giles, 41, of Oakland Hills Drive, was released on a $16,700 bond late Wednesday night, according to Bibb County jail records.
Fire Chief Marvin Riggins has said Giles is on administrative leave without pay pending further investigation of the circumstances of his arrest.
The girl’s mother reported the alleged molestation to police Jan. 24 after her daughter became shy while taking a bath. The girl told her mother that Giles had touched her genital area with his hands, according to a Macon police report released Thursday.
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The girl’s mother told police she confronted Giles twice and that he denied touching the girl inappropriately, according to the report.
Phone messages left for Giles and Riggins were not returned Thursday afternoon.
Giles, hired by the fire department in 2004, was charged with criminal trespass and theft in 2009 on allegations that he tried to steal metal from a Lizella property where he had responded to a fire while working the previous night.
Prosecutors later dismissed the criminal trespass and theft charges.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.
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