Woman charged with molesting girls
After months of investigation, Uniontown police have filed multiple charges against a 29-year-old woman accused of sexually molesting three girls more than a decade ago. Police Detective Donald M. Gmitter said Megan Marie Swaney of 26 Barton Mill Road, Uniontown, was charged Monday before Senior Magisterial District Judge Robert Breakiron with six counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, four counts of aggravated indecent assault and five counts of indecent assault.
Gmitter said Swaney sexually assaulted three girls at a home in Uniontown beginning in April 1990 and ending in January 1998.
During the eight-year span when the assaults allegedly occurred, the girls ranged in age from 3 to 13, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.
The alleged victims, now all in their early 20s, told Gmitter that Swaney would repeatedly perform sexual acts with them and threatened that they would be in trouble if they told anyone about the encounters.
One of the alleged victims told Gmitter that the sexual assaults occurred frequently beginning when she was in kindergarten and ending when she was in fourth grade.
Another alleged victim told Gmitter that Swaney would force her to perform sexual acts and would become aggressive if she resisted, Gmitter said.
The Herald-Standard does not identify the alleged victims of sexual assault.
Gmitter said he started investigating the incident after being contacted by one of the alleged victims in January.
He said that the investigation took extra time because he and Fayette County Assistant District Attorney Jack R. Heneks had to research old statutes to file the applicable charges against Swaney.
A preliminary hearing will be held Tuesday in Uniontown for Swaney.
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