By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A 40-year-old Maylene man is being held in the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $20,000 after he was arrested and charged with sexually enticing a juvenile.

Alabaster police arrested Robert Clyde Pennington on Nov. 16 and charged him with one count of enticing a child to enter a vehicle or house for immoral purposes and one count of second-degree sexual abuse.

Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney said officers arrested Pennington at his residence on Brantleyville Road after responding to a report related to the case.

“The victim was a juvenile, and the investigation is still ongoing at this point,” Rigney said during a Nov. 18 interview. “There is a possibility that there may be more charges, but that will be determined by the results of the investigation.”

According to Alabama law, a person commits the crime of enticing a child to enter a vehicle or house for immoral purposes when they “entice, allure, persuade, or invite, or attempt to entice, allure, persuade, or invite, any child under 16 years of age to enter any vehicle, room, house, office, or other place for the purpose of proposing to such child the performance of an act of sexual intercourse or an act which constitutes the offense of sodomy or for the purpose of proposing the fondling or feeling of the sexual or genital parts of such child or the breast of such child, or for the purpose of committing an aggravated assault on such child or for the purpose of proposing that such child fondle or feel the sexual or genital parts of such person.”

According to Alabama law, a person commits second-degree sexual abuse when the suspect “being 19 years old or older, subjects another person to sexual contact who is less than 16 years old, but more than 12 years old.”

Second-degree sexual abuse is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted of the crime, Pennington could face up to one year in prison.

Enticing a child to enter a vehicle or house for immoral purposes is a Class C felony. If convicted of the crime, Pennington could face between one-10 years in prison.

As of Nov. 18, Pennington did not yet have a court date listed.