A 75-year-old former Walker County church deacon is facing hundreds of charges of exploiting and sexually abusing a 30-year-old disabled Chickamauga woman.
Dennis Carl Laman has been charged with 201 felony counts of exploiting a disabled adult, 199 counts of sexual battery, and one count of aggravated sexual battery, according to the Walker County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the arrest report, authorities were tipped off by the an associate pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in LaFayette, where Laman was a deacon and elder.
Robert Borger told sheriff deputies that the woman, who has cerebral palsy, is wheelchair bound, and has low mental abilities, told a doctor at a Chattanooga hospital, as well as her caregiver, that Leman had been touching her inappropriately.
The abuse has been going on about six years, she said. Borg said that Laman, when confronted, did not deny the claims but was vague on when they occurred. The woman said Laman also forced her to touch him.
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