Man Accused Of Impregnating 10-Year-Old
POSTED: 4:15 am PDT June 29, 2005
UPDATED: 5:26 pm PDT June 29, 2005
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- A man who is believed to have gotten a 10-year-old girl pregnant has been charged with first-degree child rape.
Jeremy Daniel Cockerham, 28, of east Bremerton, pleaded innocent Tuesday in Kitsap County Superior Court and remained in jail with bail set at $250,000. His trial was set for mid-August.
Cockerham is the girl's stepfather, officials told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.
According to documents filed by prosecutors in court, police were alerted in March by state Child Protective Services workers who learned that the girl was pregnant. She initially told detectives she was impregnated by a 10-year-old boy, but police Sgt. Kevin Crane says investigators never believed that account.
"We investigated that and we determined with a high probability that that wasn't even possible," Crane said.
Last month the girl gave birth, and DNA tests from a laboratory in North Carolina indicated with a 99.99 percent probability Cockerham is the father and ruled out the boy, who also was tested, police said. Further DNA tests at a state crime laboratory are pending.
The girl, now 11, is living with the baby boy and her mother.
