May 11, 2016 4 min read

CARMICHAELS – Martin Folan Jr. was supposed to be a father figure for the 12-year-old girl who claims he raped her on three occasions and made her perform sex acts two other times while she lived at his Nemacolin house for a month in March.

Folan, 20, was in some sort of relationship with the girl’s 37-year-old mother last year, and “was supposed to come into my life and be my dad,” the girl said while testifying at his preliminary hearing Wednesday before District Judge Lee Watson.

The girl began sobbing as police officers escorted Folan into the courtroom, shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. She wore blue sunglasses and spoke in a hushed voice as she testified for about 90 minutes.

“He was like a dad,” the girl said of their relationship late last summer. “He would play in the park with me. He would take me to Kennywood and stuff.

“He was like my dad.”

They played video games together, but he also disciplined her, spanking her at times and even grounding her, she testified.

But their relationship changed in late February when she moved into Folan’s home at 45 Bliss Ave., where he was staying with his grandmother, the girl said. Folan was apparently punishing her for an earlier incident at an area skating rink that involved missed text messages, she said, and her mother allegedly agreed to the punishment, only visiting her daughter twice at the home in March.

During that time while living with Folan, the girl slept in his room on the floor, but he eventually asked her to share his bed.

“He was acting different,” she said.

One night after they watched a movie in his room, the girl testified she kissed him on the cheek, prompting Folan to begin kissing her on the lips. She said she tried to stop him, but he undressed her and fondled her before raping her, according to her testimony.

He raped her on two other occasions in late March, the girl said, and made her perform sex acts. In the early hours of March 26, they got into an argument and Folan left his house before texting her and ordering her to leave. She did, packing a bag of clothes she had brought with her and returning to her mother’s nearby home.

“I was scared, and I wanted to go home,” she said.

After the girl came home, her mother barricaded the door with a table and put either a knife or nail in the doorframe to keep it locked, the girl said, but Folan barged in a couple hours later. He took the girl out over his shoulder and brought her to a friend’s home in Nemacolin. However, he allowed her to return home again a few hours later, the girl said.

Police were called to her home when she returned and she told investigators of the sexual relationship.

The girl was the only person to testify during the 90-minute hearing.

Watson ordered Folan to stand trial on all charges, including five counts each of rape and statutory sexual assault, eight counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, and one count each of burglary, kidnapping, contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a minor, corruption of a minor, reckless endangerment and indecent exposure.

Greene County Assistant District Attorney Brianna Vanata asked for eight counts of conspiracy to be withdrawn. She had no comment on the case following the hearing.

Folan’s defense attorney, David Pollock, also declined to discuss the case, but did say he was confused about the girl’s testimony that she was being “punished” by living with Folan and his grandmother for the month.

“It’s the first I’ve heard of the punishment, so I don’t know what to make of it,” Pollock said. “It’ll be something to file away.”

There was heightened security at Watson’s office during the preliminary hearing with Cumberland Township police officers standing guard outside the building and inside the courtroom.

Several of Folan’s family members attended the preliminary hearing as a show of support for the defendant.

Folan was returned to Greene County jail, where he is being held on $250,000 bond while he awaits trial.