PA Officer Charged With Sex Crimes involving Teens
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A police officer was charged with having indecent contact with underage girls who were mental challenged and pressuring these girls to have sex with him in exchange for lenient treatment for themselves or relatives.
Robert J. Pavlovich Jr., 39, of Camp Hill, faces charges that include sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, bribery and 14 counts of corruption of minors.
He has been suspended with pay from the Marysville Police Department since March, according to the mayor. The allegations date back to 2001, the year after Pavlovich was hired.
Police said one of his victims is mildly mentally retarded, and that Pavlovich had contact with girls through the MySpace.com social networking site using a police department computer.
He allegedly told one girl that if she told anyone about what he had done, his wife would divorce him and he would never be allowed to see his daughter.
A grand jury found that Pavlovich asked 14 underage girls to secretly leave their homes and meet with him, solicitations it said were overtly or implicitly sexual or involved illegal behavior such as underage drinking.
The grand jury presentment accuses Pavlovich of touching girls sexually, including one child who Pavlovich knew had psychological problems and previously was molested by a neighbor.
From news accounts and court documents legal issues prohibited firing Pavlovich outright there are plans underway by the City Council to push to make his suspension unpaid.
Authorities said Pavlovich told a 15-year-old girl that she would not get in trouble for retail theft if she sneaked out of her house to meet with him late at night. The girl told the grand jury that Pavlovich gave her money to buy crack and she described incidents in which he allegedly overlooked obvious criminal violations involving children.
Another girl, 16, said she was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her 21-year-old brother that was pulled over by Pavlovich. He allegedly later told her that he would not charge her with underage drinking or her brother with drunken driving if she engaged in a sex act with him. She did not, but neither she nor her brother were ever charged.
On several occasions, parents and other adults confronted Pavlovich or to the chief of police, about alleged inappropriate contacts by Pavlovich with girls but no one did anything and so he was allowed to continue the sexual abuse.
The Lancaster New Era reported Thursday that Pavlovich was charged in 1995 with indecently assaulting a teen girl while working as a Manheim Township Police officer. He was acquitted but subsequently fired, the paper said.
Pavlovich was being held in the County Prison on Thursday after a district judge set bail at $500,000.
