Riverton man sentenced for felony sexual assault

RIVERTON — A former Riverton volunteer firefighter, school bus driver and Parks and Rec employee was sentenced to seven to 12 years in prison for felony sexual assault after he lured several women into his truck in order to assault them.

Charlie Lawrence, 54, originally faced up to 35 years on the charges, but took a deal with an Alford plea, meaning he admitted prosecutors had enough to convict him but didn’t officially admit to his crimes.

He was sentenced Wednesday by Fremont County District Court Judge Kate McKay, who called Lawrence’s crimes “heinous” and “horrifying.”

‘About to go get a bottle?’

The first victim was walking home in January 2024 when Lawrence pulled over in his black Chevy Silverado and offered her a ride.

When she accepted, he asked her: “Where you headed? About to go get a bottle of alcohol or something?”

The victim told Lawrence no, that she just wanted to go home.

Lawrence made several sexual comments to the woman about her body and touched himself while he drove past her home, then told her they were going for a ride. He drove toward Airport Road, then “forced himself on” the victim, according to his charges.

The victim was shaking with fear and eventually came up with a plan. She told him he could do whatever he wanted to her if they went back to town to purchase alcohol. Once there, she fled his truck and went into a retail business, where she hid inside a cooler, crying and distraught.

Riverton Police Officer Christian Amos interviewed the victim and two store employees, then reviewed the store’s surveillance video, which identified Lawrence’s truck.

The second victim accepted Lawrence’s offer of a ride in March 2023, when Lawrence groped her after she’d told him no; she later identified him in a photo lineup.

After Lawrence’s charges went public last fall, two more victims came forward.

The first was on a walk in Riverton in June 2023 when she was approached by Lawrence in his truck and offered her a ride. When she declined, he then “demanded” she get inside, according to court documents. She got a bad feeling and refused.

Minutes later, the first victim saw Lawrence attempt to get another woman into his truck, this time, a developmentally disabled woman. The first victim heard the second begin yelling and approached to intervene, causing Lawrence to drive away.

The first woman took down Lawrence’s license plate number; the second victim confided that Lawrence had “wanted her to get in the vehicle and show her ‘boobs,’” the court filing described.

While new charges were not filed as a result of the new women coming forward, McKay agreed that they could testify in Lawrence’s trial on the original charges as evidence of his “motive, identity and modus operandi.” Then Lawrence took the plea.

Arguments at sentencing

“In this case I believe that the actions of Mr. Lawrence have been frankly abhorrent,” explained Fremont County Chief Deputy Attorney Tim Hancock. He finds people he thinks he can exploit, Hancock said of Lawrence’s crimes.

“All of those things are predatory behaviors,” he added. “He knew what he was doing was wrong.”

Pointing to Lawrence’s victim distraught and crying in a cooler after she escaped his truck, Hancock said, “It’s a profound, I think poignant story and really demonstrates the impact that Mr. Lawrence has had on the community.”

None of the victims attended the sentencing hearing, but one did provide a written statement that Hancock read aloud.

“I used to love taking walks through town,” she wrote in her statement, adding that those walks are now fraught with fear. She’s undergone counseling and wrote that the assault affected her traumatically in nearly every area of her life.

“He is dismissive and takes no accountability for his actions,” the victim wrote.

Hancock recommended the stiffest prison sentence available under the plea: 10-15 years. He said Lawrence wasn’t a candidate for probation, his sentence should reflect the serious nature of his crimes, and should send a message to others considering predatory behavior.

“If you do this, you’ll get caught, you’ll get punished, and it’s going to be a significant punishment,” he said.

Defense attorney Eric Phillips spoke at length about Lawrence’s clean record – not even a speeding ticket —  and about his 25 years as a Riverton volunteer firefighter.

After he was charged, Lawrence began meeting with his pastor from United Baptist Church in Riverton weekly; the pastor is also educated as a family and marriage counselor.

Pastor Clark Grogan spoke at the hearing, and said that while he and Lawrence didn’t get into many details of his crimes during their meetings, they focused on topics of forgiveness, and Lawrence’s desire to reconcile with his wife and family members with whom he’d been estranged since his initial arrest.

Phillips said that although Lawrence entered an Alford plea, he was repentant of his crimes, and “he did not want to put these two victims up on the stand” to relive the trauma of a trial.

Phillips pointed to the presentencing investigation, which outlined an idyllic childhood and upbringing.

In 2020, Phillips said, Lawrence’s father passed away, and his marriage began falling apart in recent years.

“It’s at that point that things apparently began to derail,” he said, adding that Lawrence wished his victims could see the shame, guilt and pain that he feels.

“My client has suffered tremendously,” he said. “And I’m glad the problem didn’t get worse.”

McKay delivered her remarks and sentence last.

She said she’d heard that Lawrence had sought forgiveness, “but not necessarily that he was sorry for these women.”

Rather, she said, he seemed more interested in reconciliation with his own family. Everyone loses people, everyone loses family members, and many people have marriage problems, McKay stated.

“This was a turning point in these victims’ lives that they did not ask for,” she said. “There was some level of planning that went into this.”

McKay sentenced Lawrence to seven to 12 years in prison on the first count, and three to five on the second, to be served concurrently. He must also register as a sex offender.

This story was published on April 19, 2025.