CLEARFIELD – A mistrial was declared Wednesday afternoon in the case against a DuBois man accused of sexually abusing a young girl over an extended period of time.
Sean D. Lechiara, 39, was on trial for numerous counts of rape of child, rape-forcible compulsion, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, IDSI-person less than 16 years, aggravated indecent assault of a child, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, indecent assault and related offenses.
Jurors entered their deliberations around 11:25 a.m., Wednesday morning and notified the court of their deadlock on all 134 counts at around 1:47 p.m.
Jurors declined additional time to deliberate when it was offered by Judge Paul E. Cherry.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers didn’t have specifics with regards to the jurors’ questions or concerns with the case but did indicate his office would speak to those jurors who were willing.
“We will be retrying this case,” said Sayers, adding it will be re-listed for the next term of court.
Deputy District Attorney Tami L. Fees prosecuted the case on behalf of the commonwealth. Lechiara was represented by defense attorney Joseph D. Ryan of Reynoldsville.
According to trial testimony, on May 9, 2023, the girl requested DuBois City police to investigate a case of alleged sexual assault.
She told jurors that while she couldn’t recall exact dates or time frames, she had been abused by Lechiara for approximately a year-and-a-half to two years at a DuBois home.
She said the assaults began with inappropriate contact when she was about 11 years old and with time progressed to inappropriate touching and intercourse when she was 12- to 13-years-old.
Lechiara also allegedly made her perform sex acts on him.
She described how this repeated abuse made her feel “disgusting.” She didn’t believe she could tell Lechiara no and didn’t know how to make him stop.
This led the girl to write a series of handwritten notes to her mother in which she disclosed the assaults, as well as her fear that she (her mother) wouldn’t believe her and may even blame her.
She said during the time frame of the abuse, she began drinking and using marijuana as a coping mechanism.
Cpl. Matthew Robertson, a detective with the DuBois City police, told jurors seven photos of the girl in “provocative” poses were found in Lechiara’s e-mail account.
During closing arguments, Ryan questioned the girl’s credibility claiming her story lacked even general details and was inconsistent.
And, she gave rather “emotionless” testimony, which he argued didn’t really “match” the nature of the case.
Ryan said Lechiara—on the hand— showed some initial anger and frustration with the court but was clearly distraught over these allegations that have left him “broken.”
Fees described how the abuse began when the girl was just 11 years old and progressively got worse when she was 12- and 13-years-old, causing the girl to begin using drugs and alcohol because she couldn’t make it stop.
And then, when the girl couldn’t take the abuse any longer, she left handwritten notes for her mother as a “cry for help,” argued Fees, and when she didn’t get it, she sent a text-message to police.
Her story was consistent throughout the course of the investigation, she said, as well as on the witness stand in a courtroom full of people—some of whom were complete strangers.
