An Athens man already on the state’s sex offender registry was indicted on child molestation charges for an incident that occurred just one month after he was released from prison.
Antron Lamont Ballard, 27, is charged in the indictment with two counts each of child molestation and public indecency for allegedly exposing himself to two young girls, identified in the indictment only as being under 16 years of age.
The alleged incident occurred June 22 at the Bethel Midtown Village apartment complex off College Avenue.
According to the indictment filed last Tuesday in Clarke County Superior Court, Ballard exposed himself to one of the girls in the doorway of an apartment, “which was open into the breezeway” of the apartment building. In an encounter with the second young girl, the indictment alleges Ballard committed child molestation “with the intent to arouse the sexual desires of himself by exposing and shaking his penis in the presence of (the) child.”
Ballard was arrested for his first sex offense in 2006, when police said he peeked into an apartment window at Athens Gardens to spy on a 12-year-old girl and also masturbated in front of her. That same day, police said, Ballard masturbated in front of a 10-year-old girl at the apartment complex. He was charged by police with two counts of child molestation, public indecency and peeping Tom, but as part of a plea agreement the child molestation charges were not prosecuted and Ballard pleaded guilty to the remaining charges. He received a five-year sentence and served less than three years in state prison.
Ballard was returned to prison last year for failing to register as a convicted sex offender and was released in May upon completing his sentence, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
He continues to be held at the Clarke County Jail without bail being set.
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