CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A Virginia judge agreed on Friday to set bond for a church deacon charged with raping a preteen girl.
The Daily Progress reports that 34-year-old Richard Murray Coe is charged in Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court with four counts of rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of strangulation.
Judge Humes Franklin agreed to free Coe on $50,000 bond. A prosecutor urged the judge to keep Coe jailed. Coe serves as a deacon at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Church officials have said the charges against Coe are not related to his church position, the church or a church function.
