CLEARFIELD- A former Clearfield man accused of molesting a girl is being sent to state prison for an evaluation.
Willie Ray Hockenberry, 66, whose address is now listed as Philipsburg, was charged with rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, six counts of indecent assault person less than 13-years-old, six counts of endangering the welfare of a child, six counts of indecent exposure, all felonies, as well as two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure in connection with incidents between 2013 and 2019.
Last month when he was scheduled for sentencing, it was noted that the defense had requested a competency evaluation for Hockenberry, but he refused to cooperate when the evaluator spoke with him.
The case was rescheduled for Monday during colloquy court when his attorney, Ryan Dobo, asked that Hockenberry be sent to state prison for an evaluation.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers stated that sending defendants to state prison for evaluations was not a possibility during the COVID pandemic due to space limitations, but thought this was necessary.
President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman agreed that this is a good idea and said he would sign a court order for this to happen as soon as possible.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in April of 2021, the victim’s mother told police her daughter recently said Hockenberry had sexually abused her when she was younger.
The girl reportedly said he first touched her inappropriately when she was 7 years old, regularly touched her with his privates when she was 8 years old with the abuse evolving into intercourse with him.
A second victim reported that he had also touched her inappropriately on several occasions.
The criminal complaint notes that in 1981 Hockenberry was charged with statutory sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl.
