CLEARFIELD – On Friday, it took a jury less than an hour to convict a Clearfield man of raping and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl.
Brett Matthew Nemyo, 58, was found guilty of felony counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, and corruptions of minors, as well as misdemeanor indecent assault person less than 13-years-old.
After the verdicts were announced, the victim who looked relieved was hugged by her grandmother and Nemyo’s family was visibly upset.
The assaults are reported to have occurred in Aug. to Dec. 2021 at his previous address in Coalport, Beccaria Township.
The victim testified on Thursday that while in the hot tub, he put her hand on his private parts, had her perform oral sex on him, and licked her private area. He then lifted her up by grabbing her waist, and put her down onto his lap, initiating intercourse.
Similar incidents occurred in his bedroom, on his couch and in a camper.
In an interview after court, Deputy District Attorney Tami Fees commended the victim for her courage to take the stand and explain what happened to her.
“I am so proud of her. She was very strong.”
Fees said with the various charges, even though Nemyo has no previous record, he could serve sometime from 72 months to 40 years in state prison. He will be evaluated to determine if he is a sexually violent predator and sentenced within 60 days. Meanwhile, he remains free on $75,000, unsecured bail.
Nemyo himself testified on Friday morning denying the allegations, but admitting the girl was at his home in Aug. 2021 with other family members.
His attorney, Chris Pentz, showed the jury a drawing of the layout of the home with the hot tub next to the windows of a family room.
In the victim’s testimony on Thursday, she stated that Nemyo had given her gifts including a necklace and Nintendo Switch.
Nemyo explained that he purchased the game for her and another child for Christmas that year. He claimed he had talked to the girl’s grandmother about the necklace because the girl asked about it. The grandmother then said she could have it.
During her testimony on day one of the trial, the victim’s grandmother questioned the gift of the jewelry.
“The necklace didn’t make sense. It was something an older woman would have. It was like a family heirloom,” the grandmother said.
Nemyo denied it was a family heirloom and his son Brian testified that he purchased several similar necklaces in Texas for someone else.
In a shocking twist, Nemyo claimed in his testimony that because of a medical condition, he was unable to achieve an erection.
Pentz noted in his closing arguments, that the girl’s recollection of her head being held under water for a minute while she performed a sex act on Nemyo, was not possible. He questioned how no one would have seen the other acts in the hot tub, especially since two other children were in the tub at the same time.
Pentz pointed out that the victim never said Nemyo told her not to tell anyone, which is common in these types of cases.
During her closing arguments, Fees reminded the jury that while staying in a trailer with other kids, Nemyo slept with the victim, leaving the other two boys, including her brother, sleeping separately.
“Why is a 9-year-old child, not related to you, in bed with you?” she said and asked why Nemyo didn’t have the victim sleep next to her brother instead.
On that night, one of the boys heard Nemyo say “come here” and the girl say “no, no”, Fees said.
She dismissed claims by Nemyo that he could not perform sexually as there were no medical records to confirm this.
She noted that there was no motive for the victim to make up the allegations, because it was an embarrassing situation to talk about.
“This child was abused by that man, over a period of four months,” she said, pointing to Nemyo.
She recounted that he sucked the victim’s toes, sexually abused her and made her watch porn on Pornhub so she would know how to perform oral sex.
“What 9-year-old knows what porn sites are?” she said, adding that the girl was able to describe the videos she watched in detail.
