CLEARFIELD – A former Curwensville man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl, pleaded guilty on Friday before Judge Paul E. Cherry.
Police say Mark Allen Juart, 38, who is currently an inmate of state prison, molested a girl who was eight or nine years old while he was living in Curwensville.
Juart was sentenced to serve 30 months to six years in state prison with six years additional re-entry probation for two felony counts of indecent assault and one felony count of corruption of minors, according to a court employee.
It was determined that Juart is a sexually-violent predator, and he is required to register with authorities for the rest of his life.
After the girl’s mother reported the abuse to authorities, the victim was interviewed at the Clearfield County Child Advocacy Center in September 2022, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
The girl explained that Juart kept “trying to touch me down there,” and attempted to get her to perform a sex act on him on different occasions. He warned her not to tell her mother.
It was years later when she was filling out a form on social media regarding sex, that she mentioned it to anyone else.
After this, she told her cousin, who told her mother, and her aunt then told the girl’s mother who reported it.
In February 2023, Juart was questioned about the allegations. He denied the crimes but couldn’t explain how the girl could describe his privates and the details of the encounters.
He agreed to submit to a polygraph test, which reportedly indicated he was lying about his contact with the victim.
Around this time, an Indiana woman reported that Juart had also molested her daughter in a similar manner. Charges of indecent assault and harassment in this case were filed in April 2023 and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
That assault happened at a White Township home between January 2022 and March 19, 2023, the report stated.
This witness later told investigators that Juart admitted to her that he “did everything” the first victim claimed.
In August 2023, troopers located Juart living out of a truck at a location in Armstrong County. He was using the name “Michael Herbert”, according to a press release from state police. He was taken into custody and placed in the Indiana County Jail.
Investigators say he confessed to touching both girls inappropriately. In the Clearfield County case, he admitted to touching the victim three or four times, according to the report.
He reportedly stated that he had also been touched as a child.
He is in state prison on probation revocations for two 2020 cases: assault and strangulation in the first case and felony endangering the welfare of a child in the other. Online court documents indicate this sentence will keep him in prison for up to seven years.
In May he was sentenced in the Indiana case to serve 12 months to seven years in state prison.