Former Lower Paxton Twp. Church Youth Leader Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Abuse Charges

By Jeremy Arias
PennLive
June 5, 2014

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/06/former_lower_paxton_church_you.html

Joshua Mitchell Markelwitz, 28, of Enola. (Dauphin County District Attorney's Office)

A former church youth leader accused of sexually abusing children pleaded guilty Thursday in Dauphin County to molesting two children over several years.

Joshua M. Markelwitz, 28, was a youth leader at the Charlton United Methodist Church in Lower Paxton Township where he met his first victim, according to police. Markelwitz pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and giving alcohol to minors, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office.

While Judge Richard A. Lewis was not scheduled to sentence Markelwitz until September, the district attorney's office expected Markelwitz to receive 12 to 24 years in prison.

Ari Daniel Weitzman, listed as Markelwitz's defense attorney, was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

According to police, Markelwitz first came under investigation in August 2012, when the first victim told detectives that Markelwitz, who also gave her guitar lessons, began to rape and assault her when she was 11 years old. The victim was 15 when she spoke with police.

As police were looking into the first victim's claims, a second victim from Cumberland County stepped forward and told detectives that Markelwitz, who is from Enola, had also had sex with her on several occasions.

The second victim was 16 when Markelwitz, who was volunteering with her high school band, began having sex with her, police said.