CLEARFIELD – A Curwensville man who was a manager at a Clearfield business, was sentenced for his behavior with a teen employee Monday during Colloquy Court with Sentencing.
Dakota Novak Pline, 29, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors and stalking, in addition to summary charges. President Judge Paul E. Cherry sentenced him to serve five months to one year in the county jail with two years concurrent probation, according to a court employee.
Originally he was charged with felony counts of corruption of minors and unlawful contact with minor–sexual offenses, along with misdemeanor indecent assault and a summary sale of tobacco to a minor.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, a teen employee of a Clearfield business reported to police that she was being indecently assaulted at work by her manager. She said she had been working at the business for one year while Pline started working there about three to four months ago. About one month after he started, he “began to become sexual with her.”
She related that nearly every shift she worked with Pline, he would hug her. When she was in the stock room washing dishes, he would hug her from behind, and she stated that she could feel his erect penis touching her lower back, according to the criminal complaint.
She told him she did not want to be hugged but he continued to do it.
The victim made complaints to company’s human resources office, and the hugging stopped for a while but then it started back up again, she explained.
On Oct. 16, the day she talked to police, she said he complemented her rear end and whistled when she walked away.
“This is the first time he had said anything sexual to me so I feared he had gotten more comfortable with being inappropriate and felt like he would’ve done more,” she wrote in her statement to police.
Recently he gave her two nicotine vapes as gifts and previously gave her coffee and money.
“Based on this officer’s training and experience this is commonly known to be ‘grooming’ activity as a precursor to and/or when coupled with sexual behavior,” it says in the affidavit.
When police spoke with Pline about the allegations, he said he was trying to be nice. He confirmed he was hugging her but denied making the compliment to the teen about her posterior, adding that he can not whistle.
