PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (EYT) — A Punxsutawney man is accused of sexual assault of a minor and is currently incarcerated in the Jefferson County Jail.
According to court documents, Jacob William Tyler Fanus, 24, of Punxsutawney, is facing the following charges:
– Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse With Person Less Than 16 Years Age, Felony 1 (five counts)
– Statutory Sexual Assault: 8-11 Years Older, Felony 2 (five counts)
– Aggravated Indecent Assault – Comp. Less Than 16, Felony 2 (five counts)
– Corruption Of Minors – Defendant Age 18 or Above, Felony 3 (five counts)
– Indecent Assault Person Less 16 Years Age, Misdemeanor 2 (five counts)
According to a criminal complaint filed on March 16 in District Judge Jacqueline Mizerock’s office, State Trooper Rupp interviewed the female victim on January 31 at the state police barracks in Punxsutawney. She said she first met Fanus around September 9, 2017, at a party.
She said she became intoxicated, passed out on the floor, and Fanus picked her up and placed her on a couch. The next day, Fanus sent the female victim a photo he had taken of her laying on the floor, the complaint states.
Soon after, they began conversing through text messaging – on the phone and on social media. On September 16, they met to “hang out” and eventually ended up in an alleyway behind her residence where they had sex in Fanus’s car, according to the complaint.
Between September 16, 2017, and January 9, 2018, she and Fanus allegedly had four more sexual encounters, all at Fanus’s residence on Myrtle Avenue in Punxsutawney. The sexual encounters were all consensual. Fanus knew how old the victim was at the time of the sexual relations, the complaint states.
On March 13, Trooper Rupp attempted to interview Fanus at the Jefferson County Jail, but he refused to speak without legal representation, and the interview ended.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 27.
He is currently lodged in the Jefferson County Jail for violating his probation.
According to a previous article on exploreJefferson.com, Fanus faced charges in relation to a 2015 incident and pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of corruption of minors. Fanus was sentenced to serve between three months and one year, 11 months and 29 days by President Judge John Foradora. Fanus was also sentenced to three years, 11 months and one day probation.
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