Hawthorne man charged in two cases of sexual battery on a juvenile victim

Staff report

HAWTHORNE, Fla. – Austen William Cassels, 21, has been charged in two cases of sexual battery on a juvenile victim.

The first case happened when Cassels was a juvenile, but he has now been charged as an adult in that case. The alleged incidents happened several years ago, but the abuse was not disclosed until last year.

In an interview with the Child Protection Team, the victim described two sexual battery incidents that occurred when she was in elementary school; Cassels has been charged with sexual battery with the offender under 18 and the victim under 12. Post Miranda, Cassels reportedly said he didn’t remember one of the incidents and denied the other incident.

The second case happened several years after the first case; at the time, Cassels was an adult, and the victim in that case was in middle school. In that case, the victim provided a text message in which Cassels reportedly promised to do a favor for the victim and give her money if she would engage in sexual activity with him. The text message exchange reportedly happened several months after an incident in which Cassels allegedly molested the victim.

In the second case, Cassels has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under the age of 16 and use of an electronic device to solicit a child. Post Miranda, Cassels reportedly said he didn’t remember any communication with the victim about sexual activity, but he then admitted he may have “said some things to her” when he was drunk or high. He denied sexually battering the victim.

Cassels has at least nine felony convictions (non-violent) and has served two state prison sentences, one of which was for a 2022 case in which he was convicted of burglary and seven counts of firearm theft. After the investigations for the sexual battery cases were complete, warrants for his arrest were issued, but he has been in state prison since April 2024 on a Baker County case. He was released from prison on December 1 and immediately arrested and booked into the Alachua County Jail.

The Baker County arrest violated Cassels’ probation in the 2022 case, so he is also being held for violating probation. Judge James Colaw ordered him held without bail until trial on the sexual battery cases.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.