The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a Lenoir man and charged him with statutory rape and other child-sex offenses. 29-year old Johnathan Roy Braswell was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with felony statutory rape, statutory sex offense with a child under the age of 15, felony indecent liberties with a child, and felony sex-act with a child as a substitute parent or custodian. Braswell is being held in the Catawba County Detention Center with a secured bond of $70,000.
He is scheduled to make a court appearance today in Newton.