The former Colville police officer accused of child rape allegedly molested the 12-year-old daughter of an acquaintance in a Wenatchee home in January, according to court documents.

Scott Arms, 43, denied the girl’s allegations made to a Chelan County Sheriff’s Office detective last month. The girl’s mother has refused to take her to a hospital for DNA testing or counseling, saying she believes Arms and that the girl is fabricating the story.

Arms resigned from the Colville Police Department on April 30, police Chief Robert Meshishnek said. The chief said he was aware of the sexual assault investigation when Arms resigned.

The alleged molestation took place when Arms was in Wenatchee with his two boys visiting the mother, who was away at the time. Arms said he was watching an NFL playoff game across the street when the girl, who was 11 at the time, said she was touched inappropriately. But Arms refused to give investigators the last name and contact information of the neighbor with whom he was watching the game.

The girl alerted her mother to the contact in a text message immediately, she told police. The three discussed what had happened. The girl then spoke with a friend about what occurred, upset that her mother didn’t believe her, according to court documents.

Detectives interviewed the friend, who gave “almost exactly” the same story as that provided by the girl, according to investigators. Arms, the mother and other acquaintances said the girl was trustworthy. But Arms said she was making up the story because she had a “crush on him,” according to court documents.

Arms appeared in court and was released Tuesday, according to court records. The Chelan County Prosecutor’s Office said it had not yet assigned an attorney to the case Wednesday but planned to do so soon.

Arms’ arrest comes just months after another former Colville police officer, Rex Newport, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of sexual misconduct while on duty. Meshishnek declined to comment on the Newport case or Arms’ pending criminal case Wednesday.

Arms ended a 15-year stint with the Colville Police Department when he resigned last month, Meshishnek said. He was one of the investigating officers in the case of two Colville elementary school students who were found with weapons and said they’d made a plan to harm classmates last spring.