A 71-year-old man in central Louisiana has been arrested on a total of 100 preliminary counts of first-degree rape. The man is accused of sexually assaulting young children in and around his hometown which took place decades ago, authorities claimed.
Harvey Joseph Fountain, of Pineville, was arrested on April 9, taking place eight days after a now-adult accuser confessed to authorities that Fountain had raped them when they were a child.
Investigators have since gathered supporting evidence to prove the allegation to be accurate, along with additional accusations that Fountain had raped other children, the sheriff’s office mentioned.
The rapes are alleged to have happened between the 1970s until the early 1980s, and in each case, the child victims were under 13, sheriff’s Lt. Stephen Phillips mentioned.
Phillips said he cannot disclose how many children are alleged to have been raped yet. The investigation as of now “is still ongoing, and more arrests are possible,” the sheriff’s office mentioned in a recent news release.
The rapes are alleged to have happened in or near the places where Fountain lived and frequently visited in the area of Pineville, a city that is roughly a 115-mile drive northwest of Baton Rouge, Phillips mentioned.
Fountain was being held on Tuesday morning in the Rapides Parish Detention Center with a bail set at $1 million, the county clerk’s office said. It wasn’t clear at first whether or not Fountain had a lawyer to defend him.
Fountain was held initially on 50 preliminary counts of first-degree rape, that of which related to more than one alleged victim. However, on Friday, the detectives identified other apparent victims while Fountain was held in custody. Authorities then re-arrested him on another 50 more counts of first-degree rape.
A grand jury will be considering the case and making a decision on which charges to indict him on, Phillips mentioned.