By Sara Ganim
Centre Daily Times
March 19, 2010
http://www.centredaily.com/2010/03/19/1863228/ex-pastor-sentenced-for-assault.html
 |
| Reedy |
BELLEFONTE — The former Tyrone pastor accused of four sex crimes against children since 2006 was himself a child victim of sexual abuse, a counselor testified at his sentencing Thursday.
Dennis N. Reedy, 65, of Philipsburg, will probably be released from jail in the next few weeks, his attorney, Dave Mason said, following 222 days behind bars, two attempts to resolve his case, and “sins against God, broken family ties and embarrassed friends,” Reedy told a judge.
As part of his plea agreement, Reedy will spend about one year on parole and four on probation, during which he must undergo counseling or face more time behind bars.
“But no one knows that or appreciates the significance of that more than Dr. Reedy,” Mason said. “He won’t be violating his parole or his probation.”
Reedy admitted to indecently assaulting a 13-year-old boy he invited to work in his Philipsburg garage. He also admitted to giving the boy and his friend an obscene story depicting the children as homosexual characters.
Weeks after being arrested on charges related to that, police said they caught Reedy in a bathroom at the Nittany Mall with a 16-year-old boy engaging in sexual acts. In that case, Reedy pleaded no contest, not admitting guilt by conceding that prosecutors could prove their case at trial.
Reedy has been in jail almost eight months, since July 2009 when he was charged with the Nittany Mall case and found to have violated the bail set on the charges involving the 13-year-old. The crimes for which he was sentenced Thursday carry a possible sentencing range of probation to nine months.
Reedy thought he’d resolved his case back in October, but Judge Bradley P. Lunsford refused to accept the plea agreement. Thursday, Judge Thomas King Kistler said he recognized Lunsford’s concern, but accepted the deal after prosecutor Yvette Willson assured him it is what the victims’ families wanted.
“One of the concerns of the community ... is that you remain offense free,” Kistler told Reedy. “Whatever assistance you can get, from your God, from your family, or from counseling, I hope that it is effective.”
Willson said, “What we have here are five children over the past few years, he’s done inappropriate sexual things with. He’s sought out or taken advantage of situations where children have been near him, whether in his profession as a pastor or in the neighborhood.”
Social worker Brenda Manno testified that she interviewed Reedy as part of the process to determine if he is a sexually violent predator who is likely to keep offending. Manno said Reedy told her he was abused by older peers when he was between 6 and 11 years old, and, on three occasions, abused by a Boy Scout leader.
Since adulthood, Manno said Reedy told her he’s had six sexual relationships with children under 18 years old, and that he’s mostly attracted to 16-to 20-year-old boys.
For several years, Reedy was employed as a United Methodist Church pastor, including a stint as pastor of Christ United Methodist in Tyrone. In 2006, Reedy entered the rehabilitative program after being charged with indecent assault of a boy who said Reedy groped him at a church camp. Reedy denied that incident ever happened, but told Manno he was fired a short time later from Wal- Mart, when his boss insisted he saw Reedy inappropriately touching a teenage boy on surveillance tape. No charges were ever brought in that case.
Manno said she considered all that when she found Reedy “met the criteria for a sexually violent predator under the statute.”
“I did feel that he promoted a relationship with (the 13-year-old boys) at least in part to victimize them,” Manno said. “Based on the persistent history with children under 18-years-old, that does make it likely that he will engage in that type of behavior.”
Mason argued that Reedy didn’t suffer from a mental disorder, as Manno concluded, but instead was “someone who suffers from a substance dysfunction,” saying medications had made him impotent in the past and led to this problem.
As part of his sentence, he also can’t have any contact with any children, and will have to register as a Megan’s Law offender for the rest of his life.
Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.