Charges dropped against Burgettstown woman
A Burgettstown woman no longer faces charges stemming from allegations she had inappropriate contact with a 14-year-old girl in 2016.
Washington County Judge Valarie Costanzo granted a request by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Scheibel to drop charges against Kimberly Seals, 33, during a proceeding Monday.
Scheibel told Costanzo Smith Township police hadn’t been in contact with the teen and her family, who’ve moved, and the prosecution was unable to carry the case forward.
Police filed charges including aggravated indecent assault and statutory sexual assault in October 2016. Police said they’d begun an investigation into the allegations in response to suspicions the mother of the girl relayed to police about alleged sexual abuse of her daughter at a Langeloth home.
Seals denied the accusations: “I was innocent from the beginning,” Seals said after the short proceeding.
The girl didn’t attend a scheduled preliminary hearing before District Judge Gary Havelka the same month charges were filed. Seals waived her right to the hearing.
Monday’s proceeding had been scheduled in response to a filing by Assistant Public Defender Adam Yarussi, who included two motions asking Costanzo to dismiss the charges against Seals.
In the first motion, Yarussi wrote the girl had “never provided any direct information to (arresting Officer George Galish) that (Seals) sexually assaulted her,” but instead “indicated that no sexual contact ever occurred” between her and Seals, according to a police report.
He went on to write law enforcement had provided “no independent evidence” Seals had committed the offenses. He cited a 2008 Superior Court ruling that confessions such as the one his client allegedly gave police can’t be admitted as evidence before the prosecution can meet its “burden of showing that the charged crime actually occurred.”
In a second motion, Yarussi asked Costanzo to suppress Seals’ confession because, he said, there was no sign in a recorded interview she’d received a warning of her Miranda rights before she made an “implicating statement” and then went on to incriminate herself in a written statement.
The proceeding concluded when Scheibel told Costanzo of the situation involving the teen and didn’t include any argument on the motions by Yarussi, Afterward, Scheibel said police haven’t been in touch with the girl and her family “for some time.”
He said the “very long statute of limitations” on the alleged offenses allows law enforcement to refile the charges.
“The victim wasn’t ready and/or willing to do something right now, and that might change in the future,” Scheibel said.