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Sexual assault case moves forward
Both girls sobbed on the witness stand.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A New Castle police officer charged with having sex with underage girls had his case continued to the Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.
A preliminary hearing for Richard L. Corbin, 35, of New Castle, was Tuesday at Lawrence County Central Court. District Magistrate Jerry Cartwright found probable cause to continue his case after two girls, 14 and 15, testified that Corbin drove them to his home, gave them alcohol and had sex with each of them.
The 14-year-old was 13 when the episode is alleged to have taken place in January of this year.
Both girls testified that Corbin had driven them home from school on the day in question. Neither could remember the exact date. Corbin had worked as security at New Castle High School, they said.
One of the girls, who said she had known Corbin a long time through a family connection, called him later that night to ask for a ride to a club.
The younger girl testified she rode in the front seat and Corbin touched her inappropriately.
The other girl found a bottle of alcohol in the back seat, they testified, and asked if they could have some. Corbin suggested they go to his house to drink it, they said.
After drinking “seven or eight shots,” in the living room at Corbin’s house, the younger girl testified, she went upstairs to use the bathroom.
She said she wandered into Corbin’s bedroom afterward, where he found her and initiated sex, she said.
The girl admitted to Corbin’s attorney, Richard Joyce of Pittsburgh, that she had lied to state police about being locked in Corbin’s car and being threatened by him.
The reason she lied, she testified, was that she was afraid she would get in trouble for drinking.
The other girl testified that later, Corbin began “kissing on my neck” in the living room. Then the two of them went upstairs to his bedroom, where, she said, he forced himself on her. She said she drank around nine shots of alcohol before that happened.
Both girls broke down in tears at various points during their testimonies.
Corbin was charged by state police in July with statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault, both second-degree felonies; corruption of minors, a first-degree misdemeanor; indecent assault, a second-degree misdemeanor; and selling or furnishing liquor to minors, a third-degree misdemeanor. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
He remains free on a nonmonetary bond with the condition he have no contact with the girls.
He has been suspended without pay from the New Castle Police Department.