A former Waterville couple remained incarcerated Friday at the Somerset County Jail following their arrest last month on gross sexual assault and other charges against children, according to law enforcement officials.
Davina Petchonka, 38, and Charles H. Frost, 40, have a preliminary court hearing scheduled for March for what authorities say were crimes that were committed in Pittsfield in January and February of last year.
One of the victims in the case was under 18 years of age and the second was under 14, authorities said. Petchonka and Frost were arrested Dec. 1 in Pittsfield, where it’s believed they now live.
Maeghan Maloney, the district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties, said in an email that a criminal complaint contends that Petchonka engaged in a sex act with a person “who had not in fact attained the age of 18 years.”
The complaint further alleges that Frost “did engage in a sexual act with a minor … who had not in fact attained the age of 14 years,” according to Maloney.
The Morning Sentinel is not reporting some elements of the case in an effort to protect the identities of the alleged victims.
The charges against Petchonka carry a prison term of up to 10 years, while the charges against Frost can bring a term of up to 30 years, Maloney said. Petchonka is being held on $7,500 bail and Frost’s bail is $10,000,
Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said this week that his office investigated the matter.
Petchonka and Frost are the parents of a child who was shot in the back Feb. 28, 2020, by a drive-by shooter who mistakenly believed someone else lived in their apartment on Summer Street in Waterville. The child, 7 at the time, was in her bedroom at the time and the bullet went through the wall of her bedroom and into her back. She was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland and returned home to Waterville nearly a week later.
Two men were charged and convicted in connection with the shooting.
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