EMPORIUM (EC) — An Emporium man will face allegations of rape in Cameron County, after District Judge Barry Brown bound charges over following a preliminary hearing Thursday.
Norman Francis Pettit, II, 22, faced a total of 12 felony and 12 misdemeanor counts stemming from an incident alleged to have occurred in an apartment on Fourth Street in Emporium Borough in April.
At the hearing, two felony counts and three misdemeanors were dismissed. Pettit still faces first-degree felony charges of rape by forcible compulsion, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse (IDSI) by forcible compulsion, and IDSI person less than 16 years of age. Lesser felonies of sexual assault, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors, and unlawful contact with a minor were bound over for court, along with an additional nine misdemeanors.
The incident in question is alleged to have occurred on April 22 at one of the apartments at 12 West Fourth Street in Emporium. Witnesses report that Pettit had been babysitting several young children for a female friend who was working an overnight shift. The female’s sister asked if she and two of her teenage friends could stay the night. The adult female stated that her younger sister asked for some money to buy food from Sheetz, even though there was food in the home.
The three teenage girls are alleged to have used the money to have Pettit purchase marijuana for them, instead, and witnesses report that the four of them smoked the marijuana together, according to court records.
Sometime in the night, Pettit entered the room where one of the young females was sleeping, removed her clothing, and forcibly violated her, according to the affidavit of probable cause available at the Cameron County Courthouse.
The other two females report that Pettit displayed odd, disturbing behavior through the night, at one point grabbing one of the females and throwing her to the ground, and talking about inappropriate subject matter. Unwanted physical contact was reported by at least one other female, believed to have occurred just before the above-mentioned incident during the same evening, court records read.
Police obtained evidence from the clothing of the minor female, and it allegedly matched DNA samples from Pettit. The results were received from PSP Erie Regional Laboratory in late July, court records read.
Pettit has been held in the Potter County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bond. He is being represented by court-appointed attorney Beau Grove, of Ridgway. The next proceeding concerning this case will be an arraignment in front of President Judge Richard Masson, but a date has not yet been set for that hearing.
