Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
A volunteer firefighter is in serious trouble in Pennsylvania for what appears to have been a highly inappropriate prank involving a minor. Chad Richey, 29, of the Citizen’s Hose Company No. 1 in Glassport, has been charged with sexual abuse of a child by filming a sexual act, two counts of criminal solicitation, and corruption of a minor in connection with an incident that occurred in the fire station on May 25, 2011.
Richey alleged coerced a minor into exposing himself and surprising a community service worker who was in the station listening to headphones. The minor waved his private parts in front of the startled worker as Richey filmed the event with his cellphone camera.
The joke probably would have gone unnoticed but for a video surveillance camera in the fire station that captured the entire episode. During the investigation the minor said that Richey encouraged and dared him to do it.
Richey was arraigned before Glassport Magisterial District Judge Armand A. Martin on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. He will be back in court in September when the case proceeds to trial court in Pittsburgh. More on the story.
