EMPORIUM (EC) — An Emporium man was sentenced to serve more than five years in prison on Tuesday in Cameron County Court after pleading guilty to inappropriate contact with a minor earlier this year.
Norman Francis Pettit, 22, was sentenced to serve between five and ten years in a state correctional institution. In March, Pettit pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under the age of sixteen, but sentencing was not completed until a pre-sentence investigation could be performed by the Cameron County Probation Department.
Pettit is required to register in compliance with Megan’s Law requirements for the rest of his life, due to his offenses marking him as a Tier III offender.
Pettit was determined to be ineligible for early release or boot camp programs, but must participate in a sex offender treatment program, and he was encouraged to continue his education while incarcerated.
He was given credit for time served of nearly ten months since his arrest in August of last year. He was ordered to have no contact with his victim or her family.
The investigation that led to Pettit’s charges initially began in April of 2017, when it was reported to police that Pettit had sexually assaulted a young female at an Emporium home where he was supposed to be babysitting other children.
According to court documents, a female friend was working a night shift and Pettit was to watch her young children. The female’s younger sister asked if she and two friends could stay the night, and the older sister agreed.
Sometime in the night, Pettit is said to have entered the room where one of the teens was asleep and forced himself upon her. The other two teens reported that Pettit displayed odd and disturbing behavior throughout the evening. Unwanted physical contact was reported by one of the other teens.
A number of other counts charged against Pettit related to this incident were not prosecuted as part of the negotiated plea arrangement. Pettit was represented by attorney Beau M. Grove.
