TREMONT - Sexual assault charges against a 26-year-old Tower City man are headed to county court.
Christopher M. Romberger, 708 Wiconisco St., is accused of assaulting the girls earlier this month. After a two-hour session Thursday in district court that included conflicting testimony by the two teens, Magisterial District Judge Carol A. Pankake ordered the charges held over.
State police Trooper John Sleboda Jr. of the Schuylkill Haven station charged Romberger on two separate complaints, one for each of the victims, stemming from the April 7 incidents in a wooded area off North Bellas Street. Both girls are 14 years old. One is from Tower City and one from Williamstown.
The Williamstown girl told the court she and the other teen, her friend, met Romberger at the Tower City post office and the three went to a wooded area, where she had intercourse with the man.
She also said the Tower City teen talked to Romberger on her cellphone earlier and told her that Romberger was ready to have sex with her.
"I got really upset with her," the Williamstown girl said.
The Williamstown girl said she, the other girl and Romberger also smoked cigarettes together at the post office and Romberger did not threaten or force her to walk into the woods with him.
The Tower City girl, however, offered a different story of the events.
She said she and the other girl met Romberger at a mini-mart in the borough, not at a post office.
She also denied calling the man and said she only met Romberger the day of the incident and that the Williamstown girl knew Romberger and wanted to go into the woods.
The Tower City girl said her friend and Romberger started talking about sex, and the Williamstown girl then took a condom from her purse and proceeded to remove her pants.
"She just started getting undressed and gave him a condom," the Tower City teen said about the other girl.
She also said her friend referred to Romberger as her boyfriend.
Afterward, the Tower City girl said the man, in a state of undress, assaulted her but she stopped his attempts.
Both girls told the court that as the three were walking from the woods, Romberger said he would kill them if they told anyone about what happened.
Sleboda told the court he was called by the family of the Tower City girl. The investigation into that girl's complaint led to the discovery of the sexual assault on the Williamstown teen, he said.
Sleboda said Romberger was initially charged with the assault on the Tower City girl and days later charged with the assault of the Williamstown teen.
When interviewed at Schuylkill County Prison, where he was being held on charges from the Tower City's girl's assault, Sleboda said Romberger admitted to having intercourse with the Williamstown girl but not to assaulting her friend.
"He came clean with everything," Sleboda said of Romberger and the Williamstown girl.
After the hearing, Romberger was returned to prison where he being held on $20,000 straight cash bail, $10,000 for each of the incidents.
For the Williamstown teenager, Sleboda charged Romberger with one felony count each of statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, conduct relating to sexual offenders and corruption of minors as well as misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, indecent exposure and obscene and other sexual materials and performances.
Regarding the other girl, the charges are contact relating to sex offenders and unlawful contact with a minor, both felony offenses, and misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure, corruption of minors, indecent assault and open lewdness.