Man gives guilty plea in online harassment case
An Emlenton man pleaded guilty Thursday to harassing a woman online, threatening to distribute nude images of her in 2016.
Russell M. O'Shea, 48, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment before Judge William Shaffer.
The plea agreement calls for a sentence of time-served to 12 months in Butler County Prison. He is scheduled for sentencing later.
He spent 9 days in jail before posting bail after the charges were filed.
O'Shea, a convicted sex offender, was initially charged by Cranberry Township police with felony failure to comply with registration requirements, felony criminal use of a communication facility and harassment after police said he harassed the woman and violated his registration requirements between Nov. 4 and 11, 2016, in Cranberry Township.
O'Shea admitted to harassing the then 19-year-old woman, admitting that he threatened her over Facebook Messenger that he would distribute nude images of her to friends and relatives unless she continued sending him photographs.
The criminal complaint states that O'Shea had a relationship with the victim that started in the summer of 2015, when she was 18, and ended in October 2016.
Police said after the relationship ended, he started verbally threatening the woman, before making the threats over text and Facebook Messenger,
The victim, who lives in Cranberry Township, reported the harassment to a Seneca Valley High School resource officer in November. That officer called township police, according to court documents.
O'Shea was convicted in 2005 of indecent assault against a person less than 13 years old that was filed by Zelienople police in 2003. Under Megan's Law, he must register all cell phone numbers, aliases and Internet profiles. Police said O'Shea was messaging the woman under another name, was using two cell phone numbers and was using mobile messaging application Snapchat and Gmail, none of which were registered with police under his sexual offender requirements.
He has two prior convictions for failure to comply with Megan's Law requirements, and had been sentenced to state prison on those prior violations.
O'Shea pleaded guilty in 2005 to the indecent assault of two then 9-year-old children.
