Cops: Man arrested for assault of 5-year-old girl outside Westmoreland prison

A 45-year-old Latrobe man was arrested for physically assaulting a 5-year-old girl he was watching in the parking lot of the Westmoreland County Prison while her mother visited an inmate Thursday, according to park police.

John M. Truxal was arraigned before District Judge Mark Mansour on charges of endangering the welfare of children, harassment and simple assault following the 6:48 p.m. incident outside the prison on South Grande Boulevard in Hempfield. Mansour ordered Truxal held in the county prison Friday after he failed to post $25,000 bail.

The preschooler was taken by ambulance to Excela Health Westmoreland hospital in Greensburg where she was treated and released for multiple bruises, scratch marks and red marks around her chest and neck area, according to her 26-year-old mother from Irwin.

The girl’s mother, who asked not to be identified, said she returned to her car after visiting an inmate and began pulling out of the parking lot when her daughter began “crying hysterically, complaining (Truxal) grabbed her neck and assaulted her” when he was watching her.

“I was horrified. (Truxal’s) been a family friend for four years and I’ve let him watch my kids before, but I couldn’t believe this when I saw the red marks and bruises. I pulled over and immediately called the police,” the mother said.

She said her daughter was in the hospital until after 11 p.m.

Parks patrolman Benjamin Bitner reported in court documents that the girl “displayed obvious red marks on the top and bottoms of both wrists, a scratch on her chin and redness in her chest area.”

The mother reported the injuries were photographed as evidence by county detectives.

Bitner said in court documents that a witness, who was not identified in court papers, was parked nearby at the time of the alleged assault.

“(The witness) said she saw John M. Truxal reaching his arm in the area of the 5-year-old in the vehicle as the child yelled in a frightened manner. She also heard the mother yelling at (Truxal) when she returned to the car stating, ‘you just grabbed my daughter’s head’ multiple times,” Bitner wrote in court documents.

Truxal has a hearing scheduled Tuesday before Hempfield District Judge Tony Bompiani on charges filed by park police for threatening to shoot a man at Twin Lakes Park, also in Hempfield, on Sept. 6. He also has a harassment complaint pending filed by Greensburg Police after an alleged Aug. 29 incident involving a city resident, according to court dockets.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled Nov. 8.