Patrick T. Kearney

SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — A man's day that began in a suit and tie at a court hearing in Mercer County on rape charges ended with him in prison stripes in Butler County on unrelated rape charges.

Patrick T. Kearney, 31, of Delaware Township, Mercer County, is in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

District Judge Bill O'Donnell arraigned Kearney on Monday on two counts of rape and charges of sexual assault and aggravated assault, all felonies.

The charges stem from an alleged sexual assault that occurred nearly five years ago in Slippery Rock Township, state police said. The victim only recently reported the alleged assault.

At a Feb. 16 interview, according to charging documents, she told investigators that she and the defendant had been out on a first date together in the summer of 2014 when she believed he was taking her home.

Kearney, however, claimed that he had to first get something at his home — an apartment complex near Kiester Road in Slippery Rock Township where he was living at the time. The woman said she also went into his apartment.

She accused him of carrying her into the bedroom, ripping off her clothes and raping her, documents said.

During the assault, the victim recounted, Kearney strangled her with his hands to the point where she was unable to breathe.

She told investigators that she tried to remove his hands from her neck, police said, and told him to stop. But he continued the alleged assault.

The allegations are similar to those made by another woman who accused Kearney of sexually assaulting her in Mercer County last year.

That woman accused the defendant of raping and strangling her between March 31 and April 1, 2018, at his home in Delaware Township following a date.

He was arrested and arraigned April 20, 2018, on felony charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, strangulation and aggravated indecent assault.

He was placed in the Mercer County Prison on $75,000 bail and remained there until May 7, 2018, when he posted bail, according to prison officials.

Kearney was in Mercer County court for a pretrial hearing in his rape case there around 1:30 p.m. Monday when police arrested him for the case in Butler County.

Still wearing the suit and tie he had on for his scheduled hearing, he was taken to O'Donnell's office in Slippery Rock for arraignment on the new charges, which he denied.

Trooper Tyler Craig of the Mercer barracks, who charged the defendant in both cases, was unavailable for comment.

David Shrager of Pittsburgh, who is listed in online court records as Kearney's attorney in the Mercer County case, did not immediately return a telephone call.