Mar 22, 2017 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Crucible man was found guilty Wednesday of sexually assaulting a young girl several times between 2010 and 2014, when she was between the ages of 9 and 14.

The victim, now 15, testified in court Tuesday during the two-day trial Leonard L. Glendenning, 50, started touching her inappropriately when she was 9 years old, and had sex with her against her will when she was around 11 years old.

“He would wait for my brothers to go to bed and then he would come out and get me,” the girl said in court.

She testified that she, her sister and three brothers had often stayed at Glendenning’s home, 431 E. Fifth Ave. She told the court how most of her life she lived with her mother and siblings and moved around often, sometimes living with relatives and sometimes living in hotels for long periods of time.

She said “sometimes” he would tell her to shut the door to his bedroom and “sometimes” he would tell her to take her clothes off. She said he has asked her to touch him inappropriately and has told her to sit on top of him while in bed naked together.

“After a while, he just tells me to get up and go,” she told the court. “Sometimes, he would make me stay for like a half-hour to an hour.”

She told the court she would sometimes feel pain during the assaults and would convey that to Glendenning.

The girl said the first time she talked about the sexual abuse with someone outside of her family and closest friends was at church camp last summer, when she told a camp counselor, who then contacted Child and Youth Services.

“They were talking about sex before marriage and I asked her if I could talk to her about it,” the girl testified.

Glendenning not only denied all of the allegations, but his ex-wife, Sharon Glendenning, also testified it never happened and the girl made up her testimony.

The defense also said Glendenning’s morbid obesity – he weighed more than 600 pounds at the time of the assaults – prevented him from the ability to have sex.

His public defender, Harry Cancelmi, said in 2010, Glendenning had numerous health problems, including obesity and a 30-pound tumor on his stomach, leading to multiple surgeries between 2010 to 2014. Cancelmi showed photo evidence to the jury that the health complications and surgeries caused Glendenning’s genitals to be abnormal.

Cancelmi called his client a “one-man sanctuary.”

“His home was not only a refuge for animals, but for family, friends and children,” Cancelmi said in his opening statement. “He made sure that children had a Christmas.”

He said the 15-year-old girl was one of those children who Glendenning welcomed into his home, because of the unstable nature of her home life.

Glendenning testified he started limiting the girl’s time at his house because she would run away and he would have to go looking for her.

“She started running the streets of Nemacolin,” he said in court. “She was 11 going on 21. She would say she was at the playground and then she would take off.”

Glendenning testified the girl made up her testimony because she was mad he wouldn’t let her stay in his home anymore.

“She was mad about being in the hotel and that I let her brother stay and not her,” he said. “I enjoy having the boys with us. We have no children of our own.”

In her closing statements, Assistant District Attorney Brianna Vanata argued the girl didn’t have a motive for making up the story and talking publicly in court about the sexual, intimate relationship is “a whole lot to go through just to cause some trouble for someone.”

“If she was out to ruin lives, I can think of other ways to do it than confiding in a camp counselor,” she said.

After more than two hours of deliberation, the Greene County jury convicted Glendenning of statutory sex assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors and indecent assault. Greene County Judge Lou Dayich revoked his bond and Glendenning was taken to jail Wednesday afternoon while he awaits sentencing.

The girl, who now lives with foster parents in Eighty Four, was contacted by the district attorney’s office and informed of the verdict.

Glendenning faces similar charges in another case, which is expected to go to trial later this year. An adult woman has accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2000, when she was 13 years old.