A former Westport police officer and current corrections officer at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen has been charged with child molestation.
David Gary Piukkula was booked into Grays Harbor County Jail on Aug. 25 charged with third-degree child molestation, a class C felony.
According to court documents, Piukkula is accused of molesting a 15-year-old victim at his Montesano home on May 2, 2017.
The victim states she had been sleeping on the couch in the front room when she was awoken by Piukkula massaging her feet, which she said was odd becuase “nothing like that had ever happened before.” Piukkula allegedly continued to massage the victim’s feet for 20 to 30 minutes.
The victim then felt Piukkula’s crotch rubbing against her thigh. She ran into the bathroom and later told her mother what had happened.
An investigation was launched by the Montesano Police Department. Piukkula stated he was warming the victim’s uncovered feet and did not have any inappropriate contact. The victim stated Piukkula was physically aroused when his crotch made contact with her thigh. During the investigation, Piukkula would not consent to a polygraph.
The Grays Harbor County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Piukkula on Aug. 16.
According to court documents, it’s not the first accusation of a sexual nature against Piukkula. In the 1990s, while still a Westport police officer, Piukkula was accused (as noted in dissolution court documents) of inappropriately touching a then-5-year-old female. That child tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection during an examination after the allegations. According to court documents supporting the latest accusation, a counselor noted that the alleged victim was acting out sexual behavior on a sibling and stated she had done that with Piukkula.
That case was forwarded to the Pacific County Prosecutor’s Office where former prosecutor Michael Sullivan said the case was “one of the weakest sexual assault cases he had ever seen in his eight years of practice,” according to court documents filed Aug. 16 in the Grays Harbor case.
“The state presumes that the decision not to prosecute the case at that time was the result of a lack of understanding of sexual abuse cases as they are understood today coupled with the fact that the person accused was a police officer,” wrote Grays Harbor County deputy prosecuting attorney Erin Jany in the Aug. 16 motion and declaration for an arrest warrant.
CORRECTION: In a correction to the Sept. 21, 2017, article, “Past Westport cop charged with molestation,” the incident occurred in March and the referenced sexually transmitted infection was later determined to be inconclusive.
