CLEARFIELD – An Osceola Mills man will spend up to seven years in state prison for soliciting inappropriate photos from juvenile girls.
Police say they were contacted in July of 2022 by members of a child predator exploitation organization who had been texting with Reed Eugene Meeker, 40, who believed they were young girls.
They provided investigators with multiple text conversations during which Meeker described sexual acts he wanted to perform on the girls and asked for photos of the two doing sexual things to each other.
During the chat, Meeker’s face and privates were reportedly visible.
Meeker was in Clearfield County Court on Friday for a hearing to determine if he is a sexually-violent predator and to be sentenced.
Julia Lindemuth of the Pennsylvania Sex Offender’s Board testified that she evaluated Meeker using the various criteria for a sexually-violent predator. She noted that he has prior criminal history with this being his fourth conviction of a sexual crime.
She also stated that he has participated in sex offender programs multiple times.
He has a sexual attraction to prepubescent individuals, she testified, and suffers from anti-social personality disorder as he has a disregard of the rights of others.
In one of the other cases, he was named as a sexually-violent predator and in her opinion, she said he meets the criteria for that classification.
Judge Paul Cherry then ruled that Meeker is a sexually-violent predator.
Meeker was to plead guilty to criminal solicitation-child pornography as outlined in a plea agreement but before sentencing, Meeker stated he wanted to challenge the plea because of something he claimed District Attorney Ryan Sayers stated to him at the time he signed the plea.
(Sayers was not in court for this hearing where the Commonwealth was represented by Assistant District Attorney Brittany McCracken.)
Cherry responded by saying he had already been colloquied on the plea agreement, meaning Meeker could not now withdraw that plea.
Meeker protested again, but Cherry reminded him that Tami Fees was with him as stand-by counsel when he signed the plea. Fees did not appear to agree with Meeker’s objections.
Cherry decided to proceed and sentenced Meeker to serve 36 months to seven years in state prison with three years consecutive probation. Meeker must register with authorities under Megan’s Law.
In March a trial was scheduled in this case with Meeker representing himself. But when it was time for opening statements, he demanded stand-by counsel even though previously he had said he didn’t want any attorney.
After further discussion, a mistrial was declared and the case scheduled for jury selection in April, which is when Meeker signed the agreement.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in an interview with investigators, Meeker reportedly admitted to soliciting photographs from whom, he believed were two females under the age of 12.
Online court records show that Meeker pleaded guilty to sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, two counts of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minors in Centre County in 2005.
It was at that time he was determined to be a sexually-violent predator.
