Disabled Waco man pleads guilty in child sex abuse case

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - McLennan County prosecutors recommended that a 75-year-old disabled Waco man be placed on felony deferred probation Wednesday after his guilty plea to sexually assaulting an 8-year-old family member seven years ago.

Robert Lee Bogney pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child in exchange for a prosecutor’s recommendation that he be placed on deferred probation for 10 years and fined $1,000.

Judge Susan Kelly of Waco’s 54th State District Court accepted Bogney’s guilty plea and will sentence him Aug. 30 after reviewing a presentence report by probation officers.

According to an arrest affidavit, the girl’s mother reported the July 2016 assault to Waco police in April 2018. The girl told a forensic interviewer that Bogney, who relied on a cane to walk slowly into court, touched her inappropriately while they were sleeping in the same bed.

The girl’s 11-year-old sister, who also underwent a forensic interview, told authorities she saw Bogney abuse her younger sister. She also told officials that Bogney told her “about what happened the next day,” according to the affidavit. She said she didn’t report it to the girl’s grandmother because she was in poor health.

A police investigator wrote in the affidavit that he interviewed other family members, who said the victim and her sister spent time at Bogney’s home during the summer of 2016.

Aggravated sexual assault of a child is a first-degree felony punishable by from five to 99 years or up to life in prison.

In deferred probation cases, defendants are not found guilty if they complete the terms and conditions of probation. If they do not, they can be found guilty and are subject to the full range of punishment.

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