Aug 18, 2020 3 min read

Was it a case of child-luring or a tragic mistake?

Before the decision is placed in the hands of a jury, a Washington area man was in court Monday asking a judge to dismiss a child-luring charge filed against him last year.

Jack Connor of Uniontown, attorney for Jan Ondra, 67, of South Strabane Township, noted that the alleged victim had not testified at a preliminary hearing convened before a district judge last year when the charge was sent for further consideration to Washington County Court.

Assistant District Attorney John Paul Lewis was prepared to supplement the evidence and called the girl, now 11, as a witness.

She acknowledged feeling nervous at the outset of her testimony as she described how she and a friend who had been playing outside were in her yard making their way to her Clarksville home in June 2019 when a van stopped in front of it and the driver spoke to her.

“I was terrified; I was like, so scared,” she said before identifying the driver as Ondra, who was seated in the courtroom. Peering over a face mask, she said he was a stranger. Inside the house, an adult called police.

According to testimony at the previous hearing, the girl told police the driver said, “Get in the van. I’m taking you to your daddy.”

When Connor attempted to pin down the distance between the girl and the van, she began to cry.

Lewis objected to the line of questioning, and as the attorneys discussed the matter at a sidebar with the judge, her distress escalated and her small frame shook.

Connor asked the girl if she spoke with a 911 operator, and after said she had not, she was escorted from the courtroom, where at least a dozen spectators were seated.

The defense attorney later played a recording of the conversation, which he introduced as an exhibit. Although three voices could be heard, it was not immediately clear if the child was speaking to the adult who placed the call or the 911 dispatcher.

Centerville Borough Police Chief Jeffrey A. Barone testified the alleged victim later spoke with a forensic specialist in an interview recorded on video.

Barone also testified that he stopped Ondra’s van on his way to the child’s home but did not take the driver into custody after Ondra said he had been looking at properties in the area and attempted to ask the girl if her parents were at home so he could ask them about sewerage.

Connor argued that Ondra remained in his van outside the child’s home waiting to speak to an adult so he could find out more about the neighborhood’s sewage disposal system. When no one emerged, he drove slowly around the block and sought the information from a neighbor.

He said after the hearing he is challenging the constitutionality of the state child-luring law, “not so much on the statute, but pretty much on the facts. (Ondra’s) action are inconsistent with somebody who was there to commit a crime.

“I think what we have here is a tragic mistake, not a person trying to snatch a child, which would be horrible if that was the case.”

Judge Gary Gilman set up a schedule for the attorneys to submit briefs, which means there could be no decision until September at the earliest.

Ondra is free on bond.