The Butler County District Attorney’s Office dropped its case against a West Sunbury man charged with statutory sexual assault and other charges days before his trial was scheduled to begin.

The district attorney’s office motion to not prosecute all charges against Joseph Andrew Betz II, 71, was filed on Oct. 9 and was granted that day by Judge Maura Palumbi. Betz’ jury trial was scheduled to begin Oct. 13.

Court appointed defense attorney Antonio Bonnetty said he could not discuss the reason the charges were dropped, saying only the district attorney’s office “decided not to move forward.”

He said Betz has maintained his innocence from the beginning and described him as a man who has always been willing to help people in the community.

“He’s Butler County’s equivalent of Mr. Rogers,” Bonnetty said.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella’s motion to drop the charges states it was filed “in the interest of justice.” He declined further comment Tuesday.

State police filed 12 felony and misdemeanor charges against Betz in 2024 after speaking with the alleged victim in 2023 when he was 24 years old. He reported Betz sexually abused him over several years, beginning in 2011, when he was 11 and Betz was 58. He told police the incidents took place in a home in Cherry Township, according to court documents.

In 2017, Betz pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with the custody of a committed person the state police filed against him in 2016 for harboring the same boy. He was sentenced in 2018 to serve 18 months in prison, but was given credit for time served and was paroled to serve six months of probation.

The boy ran away from his home in Washington County when he was 16. Police said they found him June 7, 2016, hiding in a bedroom closet at Betz’s home.

After that, the boy was turned over to Mercer County Children and Youth Services and placed at the Keystone Charter School. However, he ran away from that facility, police said.