Jury convicts Coram man of sexually abusing girl, DA says

A Coram man was convicted Thursday of sexually abusing a girl for four years, starting when she was 7 years old, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office said.

A jury in Riverhead deliberated for one hour before finding Frantz Jean Charles, 58, guilty of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, prosecutors said. He abused her between 2008 and 2012.

He faces 5 to 25 years in prison when State Supreme Court Justice John Toomey sentences him June 12 on the felony conviction, officials said.

Charles, a UPS driver, has denied the allegations and plans to appeal, said his attorney, Edward Palermo of Hauppauge.

Palermo said an “alleged confession” signed by Charles made it more difficult to fight the charge.

But the attorney said he argued that the prosecution failed to prove that his client had made those statements.

“It’s been his position all along that he did not make those statements,” Palermo said.

“It’s a very sad day for the client and his family. They maintain he’s innocent, and they are going to do everything they can to overturn the conviction.”

Before the trial, prosecutors had dropped the other two charges against him, second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony, and acting in a manner injurious to a child, a misdemeanor.