Powers
A jury convicted a Franklin man for molesting a child over three years.
Tony E. Powers, 41, was found guilty Tuesday of child molesting, a Level 4 felony, in Johnson Circuit Court. He faces up to 12 years in prison and a lifetime on a sex offender registry, according to a news release from the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors say Powell sexually fondled a child at a Franklin residence between 2017 and 2019. The incidents relating to the charge were first reported to Franklin police by a guardian of the child in June 2021, according to court documents.
The child told Franklin police and Indiana Department of Child Services Powers’ behavior seemed normal to them at the time, but in the years since the incidents they have learned it was inappropriate, court documents say.
The child said Powers was “touchy” and said he would move the child around “weirdly” on his lap and grab their waist while the child was in his lap. He would stop moving the child around in his lap when another person came into the room, court documents say.
On several occasions when the child stay over night, Powers came into the room and felt under the child’s clothing and did other inappropriate behaviors, court documents say.
The child told him they were uncomfortable with this, but Powers would continue until he heard another adult moving around in the house, court documents say.
The case was prosecuted by Division Chief Carrie Miles and Deputy Prosecutor Brianna Acker.
“Child molesters beware, we will pursue you to the ends of the earth to put you in prison and put you on the sex offender registry—for life,” Miles said in a news release.
Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner is “very pleased” Powers will be serving time in prison. What Powers did was “despicable,” Hamner said in the news release.
“I would like to thank the Franklin Police Department for their excellent investigation and thank my hardworking and skilled deputy prosecutors who presented this case to a jury. This is how we protect children,” Hamner said. “And I am very grateful to the sweet young woman who had the courage to stand up to her tormentor and send him to prison so he won’t be able to hurt other children. That takes a level of courage that most people will never have to muster, thank heaven. God bless her.”
