LAWRENCE – An 85-year-old Lawrence man has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual contact from separate incidents where he allegedly hugged women and then groped them, police said today.

Charles W. Deaton was arrested Dec. 1 and charged with criminal sexual contact. He was arrested a second time on Tuesday on charges related two more alleged incidents involving a neighbor and an 18-year-old pharmacy employee, according to police.

Deaton’s fourth-degree charges are being reviewed by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

While Deaton was acquainted with the two women he is accused of groping in his neighborhood, authorities believe the teen in the pharmacy was a stranger.

She was assisting Deaton around 7 p.m. at McGrath’s Pharmacy on Lawrence Road when his hand grazed her chest, police said. Though the girl initially thought it had been accidental, Deaton then made an inappropriate comment to her, grabbed her around the waist and gave her a hug. When she pulled away, he touched her breast again, police said.

The employee went to her manager, who called police. Deaton was gone from the store by then, but police were able to identify him and connected him to a Jan. 25 incident on Holly Lane his 61-year-old neighbor reported Jan. 30.

In that case, the neighbor was outside her home when Deaton talked with her, then opened his arms for a hug. After the embrace, Deaton touched her breast, police said. The neighbor then went into the house.

A nearly identical incident happened in the foyer of a 30-year-old neighbor on Deaton’s street the morning of Nov. 29. Deaton and the woman hugged, after which he touched her breast and buttocks, police said. The woman then told him to get out of her house.

Follow the Times of Trenton on Twitter.