CLEARFIELD – The trial got underway Monday in Clearfield County Court for a former Coalport woman accused of having sex with three underage boys.
Sarah K. Lichty, 29, now of Rochester, N.Y., is charged by Clearfield state police with felony statutory sexual assault and misdemeanor corruption of minors (three counts).
The alleged assaults occurred around March and April 2021 when the victims were between 15 and 17 years old, Deputy District Attorney Trudy Lumadue said in her opening statements.
Lichty’s attorney, Thomas M. Dickey dismissed the allegations, saying: “nowadays, anybody can say anything about anybody,” and if it’s repeated long enough, people find it to be true.
He argued state police did very little to no investigative work to corroborate the victims’ statements that his client refuted “over and over.”
Dickey asked jurors “to be that juror” they would want if the roles were reversed and they were on trial, and to find Lichty not guilty of all charges.
The first victim testified that Lichty shared a sexual dream she had of him and arrangements were made for him to spend the night with plans to have sex once Lichty’s husband left for work.
Before their encounter, he said Lichty sent him nude photographs of herself over SnapChat. They allegedly had sex sometime in late March 2021.
Other times when he just “hung out” with Lichty, he said she let him drink alcohol, but he never drank enough to become intoxicated.
He also said he got a “hit” of marijuana, which he believed Lichty got from a relative with a medical marijuana card.
The second victim testified that Lichty and another of the victims both told him they had sex.
He said he stayed at Lichty’s residence around March/April 2021 and asked her to buy him a 30-pack of beer, which she did.
After they returned to her residence, he drank a few beers before they allegedly had sex in her bedroom.
The victim said he took the leftover beer and met up with the other victims in a wooded area where they drank it.
In April 2021, the third victim said he was drinking out in the woods with one of the other victims who said he had sex with Lichty.
Initially he didn’t believe it and let it go until another of the victims said he’d also had sex with her.
He left to call Lichty and said she eventually did admit that it was true, and then asked if he wanted to have sex with her too.
Because of his level of intoxication, the victim said yes and Lichty allegedly sent him nude photographs over social media.
When they got to her residence, he said she asked if he wanted to join her in the shower. He said no.
Later he said she messaged asking if he was coming into her bedroom, and when he did, he expressed hesitation.
Allegedly Lichty proceeded to perform oral sex on him and they ended up having sex. After their encounter, he got a ride home.
All three victims – when questioned by Dickey – said state police never requested to obtain messages, photographs or account information for further investigation.
Trooper Frederick Burns III explained the investigative process to jurors. He said all three victims – due to being underage – were interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center in June of 2021.
He was not present but was able to review recordings of each interview at a later date and prior to his interview with Lichty in July of that year.
Burns said Lichty claimed nothing happened, but he continually pressed her based off the amount of detail the victims had disclosed in their forensic interviews.
At one point, he commented he didn’t believe they could have fabricated the allegations to which Lichty replied: “they’re the three musketeers, they stick together.”
But then Burns said Lichty talked about pleading guilty, which made him question why if nothing happened and she claimed it would never stop if she didn’t.
Under cross-examination, Dickey aggressively questioned Burns about his interview tactics and implying he had seen incriminating messages and photographs when in fact he had not.
While he admitted there are various methods to obtain the contents of social media messages, he did not in this case because SnapChat presents certain limitations.
Burns explained that once users view their Snap, “it’s pretty much gone” unless they save it “right then and there,” and though SnapChat does store message contents, it’s only for a limited time.
He said he used the text messages and photographs – as characterized in the victims’ CAC interviews – to confront Lichty to see what her response would be.
He agreed that she repeatedly stated “nothing happened” and that the boys had been trying to get her into trouble for a while, which is why she wanted to get away from them and go to New York.
And Dickey said though his client had said “nothing happened” over and over, Burns had to ask “one last time” if 100 percent nothing happened, and his client still stated “nothing happened.”
Burns explained again why he kept pressing Lichty, indicating her previous comment about pleading guilty gave him reason to believe something did happen.
Court reconvenes at 9 a.m. Tuesday with closing arguments after which the jury will receive its instructions and be sent into deliberations.
