DuBOIS – A DuBois man accused of having a sexually abusive relationship with a 15-year-old girl waived his right to preliminary hearings in two cases on Friday during centralized court in DuBois.
Tanner Allen Quackenbush, 21, is charged in the first case with 24 counts of statutory sexual assault, 40 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with person less than 16 years old and corruption of minors, all felonies.
The other case includes 20 counts of rape, 10 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 20 counts of sexual assault, 30 counts of aggravated indecent assault, and corruption of minors, all felonies, as well as misdemeanor simple assault and terroristic threats.
These cases all now move on the court of common pleas for further disposition. He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $150,000 bail in each case.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim reported to police that she and Quackenbush began messaging online when she was 14. This is how they began an almost two-year relationship with them hanging out at his residence where he gave her alcohol and marijuana.
Eventually she said he started pressuring her to have sex with him, and before she turned 16, they reportedly had intercourse more than 20 times.
The second criminal complaint details how some of the sexual encounters were violent with him forcing her to have sex.
She reported that he would also force her to eat by yelling and screaming in her face and then would take her to the bathroom and force her to vomit up the food up.
She also claimed that he would confine her to his room without any clothes and during one argument, pointed a rifle at her.
The victim explained she tried to end the relationship several times, but he often threatened self harm.
“On one occasion, while they were video chatting, Quackenbush began to cut his legs to the point that they were bleeding” because she was trying to break up with him, she claimed.
In addition, his mother threatened the girl saying if she left and Quackenbush killed himself, she would tell everyone in town that it was her fault, the victim told authorities.
As part of the investigation, the victim messaged Quackenbush about their relationship saying she was 14 years old and how they had sex when she was 15 years old. Quackenbush reportedly did not deny these statements and his replies indicated he understood what she was saying and he would apologize. She even mentioned that he could go to jail because of their relationship and he replied, “I know.”
In January the victim met with Quakenbush while wearing a wire that recorded their conversation. She again confronted him about the physical and sexual abuse. In the recording, he allegedly acknowledged his actions by making statements such as she didn’t deserve to be treated like that. He apologized, adding “I can’t believe I really did that to someone I love so much”, according to the report.
