Driver accused of giving girl puppy in exchange for sex

The Trucker News Services

2/28/2008

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — Truck driver Billy Ray Yon, 52, is facing felony charges after a 13-year-old girl said Yon molested her in his sleeper cab several times during a period of time lasting nearly two years, according to authorities.

The girl told investigators that Yon, of Fort Walton Beach, gave her a puppy in exchange for sex acts in his rig on a motel parking lot off Miracle Strip Parkway, Fort Walton Beach police reported.

Yon is charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 years of age, an arrest report stated.

Asked to comment, Yon replied only that “there’s a lot I’d like to say.” But he then referred all questions to his attorney, who could not be reached for comment.

The alleged molestation began in 2004 when the girl was 10 and lasted until she was 11 1/2 in 2006, according to the report. The girl said it occurred four or five times.

Yon was arrested Tuesday about two months after staffers interviewed the girl at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Niceville, Fla.

Police Sgt. Curtiss Pond stated in his report that he called Yon in early January to set up a time for questioning Yon. Yon, however, was on the road in Ohio and the “conversation was at times broken,” said Pond.

He quoted Yon as saying at the time that he was getting legal counsel, but that Yon never called back after the date he claimed to be meeting his lawyer, the report stated.

Yon is scheduled to appear in court April 8.