CLEARFIELD – A Philipsburg man convicted of inappropriately touching a 13-year old girl was sentenced during court Friday.
Justin Phillip Harzinski, 37, was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to six months to one year in the county jail plus four years concurrent probation for felony corruption of minors and two counts of misdemeanor indecent assault. His trial was in June.
Although he was not found to be a sexually violent predator after an evaluation, he will have to register with authorities under Megan’s Law.
He must complete sex offender counseling and have no contact with the victim. He was ordered not to have any unsupervised contact with any female under the age of 18.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in January 2023 an investigation began after the victim reported she was sexually assaulted at a home in Philipsburg during a gathering at his home. She said Harzinski “tried to remove her top, put his hand down her pants and forced her hand down his pants.” The incident happened in 2022.
When she was interviewed at the Clearfield County Child Advocacy Center, the girl said Harzinski was drunk when she arrived and he gave her multiple shots of whiskey until she was also drunk. He started kissing her and she kissed him back.
He took her to his bedroom and laid her down on the bed, put his hand down her pants and started to take his pants off. The victim reported that she pushed him off her and told him “they would not be doing that.” She then went downstairs where the other people were located.
She said he was upset by her rejection and slammed a door, breaking the glass window in it.
As she was sitting in a hot tub, he got in and placed her hand on his private area. She admitted she stroked it until a woman came over to the tub and he pushed her hand off of him. They both then got out of the hot tub.
Later he told her he was sorry, she said.
In his interview with investigators, at first he denied anything inappropriate happened between them, then later admitted to moving her hand from his leg to his private area while they were in the hot tub as well as touching her breasts over her bikini top.
