- November 16, 2024
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Deputies arrested 60-year-old Palm Coast resident Mario Edward DiGirolamo June 26 on a capital sexual battery charge, a sexual molestation charge and an attempted sexual molestation charge for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.
The girl, a relative of DiGirolamo’s, told investigators she was 10 and a half years old when the abuse began in February 2012, according to Sheriff’s Office documents.
Her mother brought her to the Sheriff’s Office Feb. 12, 2015 to report the abuse, and a child protection team interviewed the girl Feb. 19.
The girl said in an interview conducted by the First Coast Child Protection Team in February 2015 that DiGirolamo had on two occasions touched her genitalia under her clothes, once when she was sitting on his lap, and another time when she was doing a handstand split in the pool. Another time, she said, DiGirolamo was playing truth or dare with her, and he told her to put her hand in his underwear and leave it there for 10 seconds. She said she did not. The victim also told investigators about a sexually explicit remark she said DiGirolamo made to her.
Deputies arrested DiGirolamo June 26 after the State Attorney’s Office filed charges.
DiGirolamo refused to speak with deputies and hired an attorney, Palatka-based Garry Wood.
Wood argued in a motion to reduce bond that the $300,000 bond ordered in DiGirolamo’s case was excessive in light of the fact that DiGirolamo owns a home with his wife of 42 years and has no prior record, and that DiGirolamo’s incarceration puts him at risk of losing his job as a home-based IT specialist in General Electric’s Health Care Department
The bond motion states that the victim’s mother threatened to file criminal charges in 2014, then filed a petition for injunction in February 2015, which DiGirolamo consented to without an admission of guilt.
An order of no contact filed June 27 orders DiGirolamo to surrender all firearms and ammunition to the Sheriff’s Office within 24 hours of his release from jail, and to and remain at least 500 feet away from the victim, her home and her school at all times.
DiGirolamo remained incarcerated as of the morning of June 30.
