Man headed to trial after pleading not guilty for felonies including sexual battery with minors

Barry Freckleton, left, with his attorney Curtis Smith in court on Tuesday. | Andrea Olson, EastIdahoNews.com
AMMON — A 28-year-old Ammon man charged with multiple felonies, including sexual battery involving minors, is headed to trial.
Barry James Freckleton appeared in court Tuesday in front of District Judge Bruce Pickett for an arraignment.
Freckleton is facing four felonies. Two include possession of a controlled substance, and the other two felonies include sexual battery soliciting the participation of a minor child 16 to 17 years old and sexual battery of a minor child 16 to 17 years old. He pleaded not guilty to all four counts.
Court documents filed in November do not paint the entire picture of what happened in this case. No contact orders were issued, and victims were subpoenaed. Freckleton was scheduled for a preliminary hearing before his arraignment. Typically at preliminary hearings, more information on the case is given and witnesses can be called to the stand. It was scheduled but then waived.
The case against Freckleton was for an incident that happened in 2018, which involved a traffic stop by Idaho State Police that found pills that he allegedly did not have current or valid prescriptions for.
In documents, it appears there were minor victims with him in the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop.
RELATED | Ammon man now charged with sexual battery with minors after 2018 traffic stop
During an interview this year regarding the case, one of the victims recounted an inappropriate encounter with Freckleton. She said there was no direct sexual contact but Freckleton tried to get her to send him naked pictures. She said she never did, according to documents.
She said he sent her inappropriate pictures back in 2018 before the traffic stop.
The victim said Freckleton sneaked her and her friends out five or six times and that Freckleton groped and touched her friends. He requested her to “perform sexual acts on him via cell phone,” according to documents.
Other interviews were conducted and one victim said she was touched inappropriately on the chest by him.
EastIdahoNews.com sent a public records request to Idaho State Police for more information on the incident; however, the request was denied due to the pending court case.
Freckleton has been out on bail and is on pretrial release. He is scheduled for a jury trial on Feb. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Bonneville County Courthouse.
The post Man headed to trial after pleading not guilty for felonies including sexual battery with minors appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com