Six weeks after a Warren County jury said it could not agree on whether he was guilty of molesting two teenage boys in Vicksburg, a state trooper will go to trial Monday on a similar charge in Starkville.

Richard Dane Davenport, 46, faces one count of fondling or touching of a child younger than 16 in Starkville last year. He was indicted in January by an Oktibbeha County grand jury, one day after a Warren County grand jury indicted him on nine counts of sexual molestation of the same child and his brother, offenses Davenport was accused of committing between October 1999 and August 2007.

Under state law, the children are not identified.

Jury selection is expected to get under way at 8:30 a.m. at the Oktibbeha County Courthouse, Circuit Clerk Angie McGinnis said in a telephone interview. The panel will be chosen from a pool of 200 prospective jurors. Oktibbeha Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens Jr. will preside.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday that Kitchens also might hear and rule Monday on pretrial motions relating to the admissibility of evidence related to the Warren County charges. Hood said the judge also could wait to consider such motions in chambers during the course of the trial.

Davenport’s trial on the Warren County charges ended in a mistrial in September. A retrial has been scheduled for May 11, 2009, Hood said.

The attorney general is prosecuting the case because Davenport is a state employee and was charged in multiple counties. Following the rules of the court, Hood said, he could not make any pretrial comments.

The Starkville incident is alleged to have occurred Sept. 23, 2007. If convicted, Davenport faces 15 years in the state penitentiary.

 “We’re ready to defend these charges against Sgt. Davenport, and we expect a good outcome,” said Davenport’s attorney, John P. Zelbst of Lawton, Okla., who also defended Davenport in Warren County.

Those charges included four counts of sexual battery of a child younger than 14, and five counts of fondling or touching a child younger than 16. The case was heard in September in Warren County Circuit Count. The six-day trial ended in a mistrial after jurors reported being hopelessly deadlocked after deliberating for about six hours. Circuit Judge Frank Vollor, sitting in for presiding Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick who was called away on a family emergency on the trial’s final day, accepted the jury’s statement and pronounced the mistrial.

Sources that day said jurors were divided 10 to 2 to acquit Davenport, who faced life imprisonment if convicted.

“We’re disappointed that the victims in this case will have to wait for resolution,” Hood said in a written statement after the Warren County proceedings.

Davenport is a 20-year veteran of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, who achieved the rank of master sergeant. In addition to patrol, he managed the Mississippi Department of Public Safety driver’s license station at 1100 Grove St. Since his arrest, he has been on unpaid administrative leave.