BERNE — Timothy M. David was arrested this month for a rape police say happened the week of the Altamont Fair in August.

David, 25, of 1721 Helderberg Trail, was charged with third-degree rape, a felony, and with sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.

David met a 16-year-old girl at the Altamont Fair, according to a release from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. “David brought the minor to his residence in the Town of Berne where he had sexual intercourse with the young girl,” the release says.

Originally the girl said that she was raped at the Altamont fairgrounds, according to Altamont Police Officer Christopher Laurenzo. When Altamont Police investigated further, they found that it had actually happened in Berne, he said; the girl did not want her parents to know that she had left the fairgrounds with someone she had met there. “She wasn’t supposed to leave the fairgrounds,” Laurenzo said.

The rape was reported to the Altamont Police on Aug. 31, according to Police Chief Todd Pucci. Laurenzo said that he spent a few days checking into the story, interviewing the complainant and her friends. As soon as Altamont Police learned that the incident did not in fact happen in their jurisdiction, they handed the case over to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, Laurenzo said.

Although the sheriff’s office received the case early in September, Inspector William Riley told The Enterprise, it took time to do their own investigation and interview people. 

Sheriff deputies arrested David on various traffic charges first, and then questioned him about the alleged rape, Riley said. The deputies waited for him to leave his house, he said, and then charged him, on Helderberg Trail in Berne, with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, a misdemeanor; and driving without a license, an infraction.

According to the arrest report, David was known to arresting officer Deputy Hector Fernandez for having had his license suspended twice for failure to pay driver responsibility assessment fees on license points, and for driving while intoxicated in April.      

David was arraigned on the charges related to the rape in Berne Town Court by town Justice Albert E. Raymond III and remanded to the Albany County Correctional Facility in lieu of $40,000 bail.

The Albany County Correctional Facility’s booking office said that David was released on bail on Oct. 13.