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A Clay County Grand Jury on Aug. 5 brought true bills of indictment in two unrelated cases involving child sex offense allegations against two Hayesville residents.
In one case, the grand jury indicted a Hayesville man on six child sex offense charges that allegedly occurred over the course of five years, 2010-2015.
Mark J. Kresal, 66, of Hayesville, was indicted on first-degree statutory sex offense involving a child under 13 and five counts of indecent liberties with a child.
Kresal was released under a $750,000 bond on Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear in the Oct. 14 session of superior court.
In an unrelated case, the grand jury indicted Rebecca Michelle Jones, 40, on charges of first degree sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree kidnapping, statutory rape of a child and abduction of a child.
Jones is accused of taking a 15-year-old male from his home in Clay County without the consent of his parents or legal guardians.
Accompanied by the male teen, Jones was arrested in Clinton, Tenn. in late July and returned to Clay County to face charges. The teen had been reported as abducted on July 20.
She faces the exploitation charges for allegedly “producing material containing a visual representation depicting activity,” with the victim, according to one of her arrest warrants.
Jones is scheduled for the Sept. 8 session of court. She remains in the Clay County Detention Center under a $400,000 bond.
The teen had been in the custody of Carl Mikulan and his wife. Mikulan died in a Tennessee hospital on May 29 a few days after he was found in a field in the Shooting Creek community with a gunshot wound to the head. Jones was married to Mikulan’s stepson, Investigator Todd Wingate confirmed in an earlier report in the Progress.
Investigators have not determined whether these incidents were related. The investigation into Mikulan’s death remains open.