Four years after allegations surfaced that a well-known Butler doctor had sexually assaulted boys, the last of the pending charges was resolved Monday in Butler County Court with a plea and sentence.

Dr. David Evanko, 59, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two boys he had been contracted to treat medically while they were residents of Summit Academy.

Evanko was sentenced to serve 5½ to 14½ years in prison. The sentence will run and expire concurrently with the 6- to 15-year sentence Evanko already is serving for sexually assaulting a boy he'd met in the Boy Scouts in the 1990s.

The hearing marked the final in-court action on all matters. And because of that, both the defendant's wife and the lead investigator used the opportunity to draw attention to what they believe to be flaws in the justice system illustrated by this case.

“I support him and believe in his innocence 110 percent,” said Casey Evanko, who's been visiting her husband weekly at Camp Hill State Prison since he was sent there six months ago.

“These alleged victims are lying, but people facing these types of allegations just don't stand a chance. We've both lost our faith in the justice system.”

But Robert McGraw, who was the state trooper who investigated and charged the doctor, said the system was actually stacked against the prosecution.

“David Evanko is a coward who physically and psychologically preys on children,” McGraw said. “Unfortunately, he won't be spending the rest of his life in jail because of the statute of limitations. We have to abide by the law.”

Prosecutors initially tried to file charges on behalf of two boys the doctor met while he was a Boy Scout leader in the 1990s. After a few hearings, the state attorney general's office acknowledged the statute of limitations had sunsetted on one of the alleged victims and withdrew the charges relating to him.

The second alleged victim, now 33, testified during a May trial that Evanko molested him more than 100 times when he was between 13 and 18 years old at the doctor's house, on vacations and in the doctor's camper.

Senior Judge Fred Anthony of Erie County presided over Evanko's five-day bench trial, and afterward convicted the defendant of statutory rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, deemed him a sexually violent predator under the state's Megan's Law.

Evanko in that case began serving his 6- to 15-year sentence in November.

On Monday, wearing a red prison jumpsuit and a 5 o'clock shadow, Evanko pleaded guilty to another 10 crimes, five for each victim in the Summit Academy case.

Those boys, ages 15 and 17, independently sought treatment for genital warts. Evanko inappropriately touched the boys when he was supposed to be treating the ailment.

The victims did not attend the plea and sentencing hearing Thursday. But Deputy Attorney General Todd Goodwin told senior Judge William Ober of Westmoreland County that the plea arrangement came with the victims' blessings.

Ober sentenced Evanko in accordance with the arrangement: 5½ years to 14½ years in prison. Because the sentence runs concurrently with the sentence in the Boy Scout case, the two will expire at the same time.

Afterward, Goodwin would say only that he's “satisfied” with the resolution.

Casey Evanko alleged that her husband took the plea arrangement “because David did not want to take the chance of getting more prison time (if convicted by a jury.)”

Evanko's defense attorney, Stanton Levenson of Pittsburgh, said his client would have preferred to plead no contest to the charges, but prosecutors refused to agree to that and Evanko wanted to resolve the case.

As part of the plea arrangement, Evanko agreed to withdraw an appeal that asked Anthony to overturn the verdict in the Boy Scout case.

Anthony presided over the case because all Butler County judges recused themselves, and the first judge to hear the case, Clarion County Senior Judge Charles Alexander, died.

Following the conviction in the Boy Scout case, Anthony recused himself from the Summit Academy case, and Ober was appointed by the state's Supreme Court to take over.