Tower City Man Held On Juvenile Sex Charges
(For the Aug.18, Call, Schuylkill Haven, PA, & the West Schuylkill Press-Herald)
By Bud Angst
Pottsville, Aug. 18 — Richard Ronald Lenker, Tower City, age 37, is in the Schuylkill County Prison awaiting arraignment on criminal charges involving alleged sexual assaults on a juvenile that began when the boy was seven years old and continued for six years.
Lenker waived his right to a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Carol Pankake, Tremont. Included are charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a felony, and indecent assault and corruption of a minor, both misdemeanors.
The arrest affidavit accuses Lenker of committing the acts at four different places, 40-to-50 times from 1996 to 2001.
The affidavit also alleges that the boy, the very first night, attempted to avoid Lenker’s advance by pretending to be asleep but Lenker persisted and eventually performed a sexual attack on the child. Continuing acts were performed over the six year period, the affidavit states, which the boy tolerated because he feared Lenker’s anger.
The police state that Lenker admitted inappropriate behavior but on only one occasion, following a party at which he was drinking.
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