Two more charges were filed against a former employee at Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems who was charged in October 2016 for his alleged romantic relationship with a student.
While new charges against Brian M. McLaughlin, 29, of Bradford, were filed Wednesday, the offense date is listed as Oct. 16, 2016 — eight days before the offense date of the previous charges.
McLaughlin was arraigned Wednesday before Magisterial District Judge Dominic Cercone on new charges of institutional sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor-sexual offenses, both third-degree felonies, court records stated.
Court records said while McLaughlin was employed as a mental health residential care professional at Beacon Light, he kissed a female residential client of the facility. Police learned the new facts while conducting interviews during the investigation of an alleged incident that happened on Oct. 24, 2016.
McLaughlin was first charged on Oct. 25, 2016, on allegations that he was developing a romantic relationship with a 16-year-old girl, who ran away from Beacon Light on Oct. 24. She met him at McDonald’s while he was off-duty, she got in his car and they drove around. They were parked at the McDowell Sports Center Fieldhouse parking lot on Campus Drive and kissing in the back seat, when McLaughlin got a phone call from his father informing him that the police wanted to talk to him, court records stated.
It was while they were investigating the above incident that police learned McLaughlin allegedly had prior inappropriate contact with the same girl.
Between 3 and 11 p.m. Oct. 16, McLaughlin, who was on-duty this time, played a game of truth or dare with the girl, and, when other staff members were out of sight, he went with her into a bathroom, where they “began touching and kissing,” court records stated.
McLaughlin, who has been incarcerated in McKean County Jail in Smethport since Oct. 25, had an additional $25,000 bail set against him in the new case on Wednesday.
He is scheduled to appear the morning of Feb. 2 in McKean County Central Court on the recent charges, and is scheduled to appear the afternoon of Feb. 2 in the McKean County Court of Common Pleas for a last day to plea hearing on the original charges.
