Transient reported molesting 11-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl

Historic City News is following the Tuesday afternoon arrest of a 42-year-old transient roofer, Cory Allen Gale, on two-counts of lewd and lascivious molestation involving an 11-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl who were living with their mother and her fiancée in an Anastasia Boulevard motel.

St Augustine Police Patrolman Gary Johnson responded to a room at the La Florecita Inn where the four were living. Johnson was told that Gale is a prior acquaintance of the family, who knew him by his nickname, “Tennessee”.

According to a statement from the mother, Gale had recently been evicted from an apartment located at 209 Flagler Boulevard and he has been living in a tent in a wooded area behind Blue Water Jewelers.

At approximately 12:45 Tuesday, the mother says that Cory let himself into her motel room, and while he was there, “he drank seven beers in less than an hour”. She told Officer Johnson that she found Cory in her bed; he was “incoherent and passed out”.

Although her son and daughter were alone in the room with Cory, the mother says that she went outside “to smoke a cigarette and talk to her fiancée” and a family friend, and that she left the motel room door cracked open — a foot or more.

The mother stated to Officer Johnson that, sometime later, her son ran outside the room and said, “Mom and Dad, Tennessee just grabbed me”. The boy said that Cory had fondled his testicles and tickled him, and then pushed the boy’s face into his crotch.”

The mother ran Cory out of the room, and told police that he did not have permission to be at the La Florecita Inn.

While she was writing her statement for police, the mother told Officer Johnson that her daughter just told her son that while they were in the room together, Cory had rubbed her “in her private spot” with his hand outside her clothing.

Although she did not report the incident to police at the time, the victim’s mother went on to say that two weeks ago, Cory had come to their motel room for a visit; and, while he was there, he put his mouth on her nipples and proceeded to suck and chew on them. She says that she hit him in his side and “chased him out of the room”.

The children’s mother also stated that Cory previously tried to coerce her into letting her son go with him to his camp site and that she refused.

While Officer Johnson was at the scene, the mother told him that Cory’s actions have caused both her children to feel “frightened and uncomfortable”, to the point that her 5-year-old daughter locked herself in the bathroom while the police were present.

Cory has been arraigned on the two felony charges and remains in custody at the St Johns County Detention Facility in lieu of $100,000 bond on each of the two charges.