Pa. man gets less prison time in do-over child-rape plea

SMETHPORT, Pa. (AP) — A northwestern Pennsylvania will spend 10 to 20 years in state prison, plus 10 years on probation, after pleading guilty to molesting three young girls.

Forty-seven-year-old Johnnie Gale Lee, of Mount Jewett, entered the pleas Monday instead of facing a second trial he won on appeal.

The Bradford Era reports today that a senior judge overturned Lee’s conviction and sentence of 42 1/2 to 85 years in prison after District Attorney Raymond Learn acknowledged nurse Rhonda Henderson’s testimony was incorrect when she said she found physical injuries consistent with sexual assault on the girls.

Henderson has denied wrongdoing even though a state medical advisory board found she exaggerated or fabricated child sex injuries in some cases.

Learn says prosecutors agreed to the pleas to spare the victims and their families another trial.