MONROE — A Monroe man faces charges filed Dec. 7 in Green County Circuit Court that he groomed and sexually and physically abused two girls over a period of time.

William Scott Latta, 49, was jailed but later released on a $10,000 signature bond, with conditions including no contact with the alleged victims, any children younger than 18 and two area schools.

He faces four counts of first-degree child sexual assault involving sexual contact with a child younger than 13. These are Class B felonies that each carry a maximum sentence of 60 years in the state prison system.

He’s also charged with two Class E felony counts of repeated physical abuse, two Class I felony counts of exposing a child to harmful material and a misdemeanor count of intimidating a victim to dissuade reporting.

Latta told the court he plans to seek representation from a private attorney. He is due back before the court for a status conference Dec. 14.

According to the criminal complaint, which is based on forensic interviews and a search warrant executed Dec. 3 on Latta’s Ullom Road home:

In separate interviews, a preteen girl and a teenage girl described similar interactions, behavior and actions from Latta over a course of several years, including frequent touching and sexual comments about their bodies.

An older woman related to the girls also told investigators Latta had similarly groomed and abused her decades earlier as a child.

The younger girl said Latta purchased two vibrators for her and that he frequently referred to them as her “friends” and encouraged her to draw a picture of herself using one. She said he showed her pornography and told her that even though she was so young, “she was his soulmate.” She said he offered to pay her $100 to $150 to “go into the restroom and take a picture” of herself, but she never did.

The vibrators she described were located by police at Latta’s home during the execution of the search warrant. Police also seized several drawings.

She said she talked with him openly about a lot of things, like issues she was having at school, because at the time she thought she could trust him. In turn, she said he’d tell her “she should remember that she was more beautiful, she was so much better than them (and) she is hotter than them.”

She also described him repeatedly grabbing and touching her sexually and telling her she was “so sexy.”

She advised that Latta told her, “Remember, you can’t tell anyone about this. This will not only affect you and me, it will affect (my wife), too. She can’t live on her own.”

She said one time he forced her on top of him in bed, slid his hand under her shirt and kissed her on the mouth. He then grabbed her jaw and neckline, she said, and she “started to freak out” and her “whole world stopped.” She kicked and punched him and ran off.

The interviewer noted the girl “could be observed to be upset” while describing the assault.

The older girl said Latta spent extravagantly on her in exchange for backrubs, hugs and time together. She said “he would tell her that no one loved her the way that he loved her” and “no one else could buy her the things that he could buy her.”

But when he did not get his way, she said he “would flip out on her,” blaming her, and frequently disparaged her boyfriend, friends and family.

Both girls also reported Latta randomly hit them on their thighs or arms, so hard that it would leave a handprint for 20 to 30 minutes and purple bruising for days. They provided photographic evidence.

The older girl said she had “pushed it all down,” referring to the grooming, abuse and “gaslighting,” but once she heard what Latta was doing to the younger girl, “she could not stay silent.”

She said Latta is “very good at hiding things.”

Latta and his wife were home on the afternoon of Dec. 3 when police arrived to execute the search warrant. Latta told police he had been waiting, looking out the window and not eating and he hadn’t slept in days.

He referred to one of the girls as “a troubled kid” who is “very aggressive and talks about sex nonstop.” He said he and his wife have been trying to help her. He said an attorney had advised him not to speak to police but there was so much he wanted to say.

State court records show no criminal history for Latta.