Man accused of soliciting 15-year-old girl in Latrobe
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A man was arrested Thursday on charges of soliciting and harassing a 15-year-old Latrobe girl last month while she was accompanied by her 7-year-old niece at a city laundromat.
Justice J. Roberts, 24, of Greensburg was arrested on a warrant acquired by city police after the Oct. 25 incident. He was arraigned on charges of statutory criminal solicitation of a juvenile under 16, corruption of minors and harassment.
Officer Michelle Preston said the girl went to the Coin Laundry at 604 Cedar St. in Latrobe about 3 p.m. to wash some clothes and Roberts followed her inside.
Preston said the girl placed clothes in a washing machine and then walked around the building in an attempt to get Roberts to stop following the pair.
The girl told police Roberts asked her how old she was and she told him she was 15.
“Roberts then asked the (girl) if she wanted to kiss him and she stated no. He also asked her if she wanted to have sex and she stated no,” Preston said in court documents.
After Roberts touched her back area as she sat with her niece, Preston reported the girl and her niece fled to a nearby grocery store, where Roberts also followed. Police allege Roberts grabbed the girl “around her hip area” before fleeing.
Police said they located him walking a few blocks away.
Roberts was ordered held in the county prison in lieu of $25,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Nov. 23.
According to court dockets, Roberts pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges of receiving stolen property and theft filed by Greensburg police as part of a plea agreement in an earlier incident and was sentenced to serve three to 12 months.
He was paroled from jail but violated terms of his parole in March of this year and was ordered back to the county prison until he was released July 15, according to court records.