TAMAQUA - A West Hazleton man charged by McAdoo police with sexually assaulting a teenage girl on Dec. 27 had charges against him held to court during a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
Roberto Acosta, 20, of 10 W. Broad St., appeared before Magisterial District Judge Stephen J. Bayer, Tamaqua, on charges of two felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, two misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and one misdemeanor count each of corruption of minors and indecent exposure.
After a 30-minute hearing with the 17-year-old victim as the only witness, Bayer ordered all charges against Acosta bound over to Schuylkill County Court.
He was returned to Schuylkill County Prison, where he is being held on $50,000 straight cash bail set by Bayer at his arraignment earlier this month. Acosta's attorney, public defender Christopher Reidlinger, asked for a bail reduction, saying his client can reside with his brother.
Bayer denied the request, saying, "under the circumstances, $50,000 is a very appropriate bail."
McAdoo police Chief Jeffrey Wainwright charged Acosta with an incident at a borough business.
The teen told the court that Acosta kept asking her to go to the basement, also a storage area, with him and that she walked there with him in order to stop him from asking.
Once in the basement, Acosta asked her to perform lewd acts which she refused and he then exposed himself and assaulted her, throwing her to the ground and pulling at her clothes.
The victim said she began to scream and struggled with Acosta and was able to get away from him and run upstairs.
