By Sara Ganim
Centre Daily Times
January 8, 2010
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1716585.html
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| Reedy |
BELLEFONTE — A former pastor from Philipsburg accused of two sex-related offenses against children will take his case before a jury after a judge threw out the plea agreement that would have allowed him to spend about six months in jail.
At Dennis Reedy’s scheduled sentencing Thursday, Judge Bradley P. Lunsford informed prosecutor Yvette Willson and Reedy’s attorney Dave Mason that he was rejecting the deal.
From the bench, Lunsford did not give a reason, but told the attorneys to “keep negotiating.”
After about two hours of talking behind closed doors, Mason said they were going to take the cases to trial.
“(Lunsford) felt the plea agreement of time served apparently did not reflect the nature of the offenses,” Mason later said.
In October, Reedy, 65, pleaded guilty to charges in a case in which police say he groped a 13-year-old boy he invited to his garage, then gave the boy and his friend an obscene story depicting them as homosexual characters.
The former Tyrone pastor also pleaded no contest — not admitting guilt but acknowledging that prosecutors could prove their case — in a separate incident in which police say he engaged in sex acts with a 16-year-old boy in a Nittany Mall bathroom.
Reedy, now living in Philipsburg, had met the boy just minutes earlier, police said.
In exchange for his pleas, the agreement called for Reedy to be sentenced to time served Thursday and be under the court’s supervision on probation.
Mason said Reedy didn’t come into court anticipating to be immediately released from jail, but also wasn’t expecting the deal he reached to be thrown out.
“Expecting it? No,” Mason said. “Did each of us realize it was a very real possibility? Yes.”
In the case involving the two 13- year-old boys, Mason said a jury will likely be picked in February.
The Nittany Mall case would follow.
“I believe it’s going to be a very difficult case for the prosecution to gain a conviction,” Mason said. “The statute requires they be able to prove he knew the (16-year-old teen) was under 18.”
After Reedy’s August preliminary hearing, Mason said Reedy couldn’t have known that the 5- foot-11-inch, 220-pound teen, dressed in a button-down shirt and white shoes, was younger than 18.
Mason said even if Reedy is eventually convicted of all charges in both cases, at this point, he’s already served more than half of the standard sentence for these types of crimes.
In 2006, Reedy was charged with indecent assault in Franklin County because police said he groped a 12-year-old boy at a church camp. In that case he completed a probationary program.
District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said her office is prepared to take the cases to trial.
Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.
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