Montana – A former Stevensville school resource officer who resigned his post earlier this month has been charged with a sex crime involving a child.

Samuel Steven Fawcett, 37, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant. He posted a $50,000 bond and was released.

Fawcett will appear before Ravalli County Justice Jim Bailey on July 19 on the two felony charges.

The case does not involve any children in the school district.

According to charging documents, the offenses occurred between Oct. 2014 and April 2016 while Fawcett was 33 to 35 years old. The victim was three or four years old.

The affidavit said the investigation in the case began after the victim was touched inappropriately by a peer-aged schoolmate. When the victim’s mother asked the victim if that had happened at any other time, she told her mother about two occasions allegedly involving Fawcett.

The youth allegedly repeated the statement at a forensic interview conducted at the First Step Resource Center in Missoula on April 9.

Fawcett had been on administrative leave from the Stevensville Police Department since April 10. He officially resigned as a Stevensville police officer on June 3.

Stevensville Superintendent Robert Moore said Fawcett was not an employee of the Stevensville School District.

The district contracts with the Town of Stevensville for its school resource officer. Moore said the school did not know the details of the leave or the investigation after Fawcett was placed on leave.

“We were only informed that it did not involve the school, our students, or our employees,” Moore said.

Source: https://ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_0e0ab200-38c6-59eb-83d1-154d988ff480.amp.html