Motion to dismiss rape case lodged against former Connellsville officer withdrawn
The attorney for a former Connellsville police sergeant charged with raping a Westmoreland County woman withdrew a motion to dismiss the case.
Ryan Reese, 44, faces charges of rape, sexual assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, official oppression and indecent assault for allegedly assaulting a Tarrs woman in July 2011.
Earlier this year, Reese’s attorney, Charity Grimm Krupa, filed motions that contended the state Attorney General lacked the authority to prosecute the case. They argued that under state law, municipal police officers are not state officials and employees subject to prosecution by the attorney general under the confines of the Commonwealth Attorneys Act.
State police charged Reese, a former member of the now-defunct Fayette County Drug Task Force, after the alleged victim said he came to her home with a warrant for her arrest, handcuffed and raped her. The woman was acting as a confidential informant, police said.
The Herald-Standard does not identify those who allege they are victims of sexual assault.
His trial in the Westmoreland County case is scheduled for November, according to court records.
Reese also faces trial in a similar case in Fayette County, where he was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, official oppression and indecent assault from an incident that allegedly occurred in January 2012. Jury selection in that case is scheduled to begin Oct. 2.
He was convicted of corruption of minors in a second Fayette case for having sexual contact with a teenage girl who was working with him as a confidential informant in 2014. Jurors acquitted him of the more serious charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
Reese was sentenced to 9 to 24 months in prison, but is free on bond pending appeal to the state Superior Court.