Jennifer Shick

MIDDLESEX TWP — Police arrested a woman Wednesday on charges she had a three-year sexual relationship with a boy that began when he was 12.

Jennifer Shick, 44, faces more than two dozen felony charges stemming from the alleged sexual contact that occurred between 2011 and 2014, mostly in Middlesex Township.

She is free on $75,000 bail.

While being arraigned, Shick identified her attorney as Kenneth Harris. A telephone call to Harris’ office in Butler was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Middlesex Township police launched their investigation Feb. 9 after the child made his allegations against Shick. During an interview by a Butler County Alliance for Children staff member, the boy recounted the alleged abuse.

He said the assaults began in June 2011 when Shick performed sex acts on him, according to court documents. Eventually, he said, they had sexual intercourse later that year.

The relationship intensified, documents said, and the two had sex in the defendant’s car and at her home.

The boy said that Shick told him that “she had a hysterectomy and that it was safe to have sex,” according to court documents.

He advised investigators that the assaults continued until he was 15. He said he previously tried stopping the assaults, telling the defendant that he “can’t do this anymore,” according to a police affidavit.

The boy told investigators that he was sexually assaulted more than 100 times, and that the assaults occurred two or three times a week.

District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Shick on six counts each of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, child endangerment and corruption of minors.

At her arraignment, Shick told Haggerty that she is married and has five children. She also said she is employed at Butler Memorial Hospital and has worked there for four years.

A BMH spokeswoman Wednesday was not able to confirm the defendant’s employment.