Man faces sex assault charges
BUTLER TWP — A Butler man faces a hearing next month on eight felony counts of allegedly having sex with a teenage boy he met on Facebook.
Butler Township police said Matthew J. Rekich, 19, and the 14-year-old boy in April had sex in a car in the Regal Cinema parking lot at Moraine Pointe Plaza in the township and at Memorial Park in the city.
Police arrested Rekich on Tuesday, nearly seven weeks after learning of the suspected illicit relationship.
He is charged with two counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and corruption of minors, all felonies.
Additionally, he is charged with two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault. Rekich is free on $10,000 bail.
Detective Sgt. Nathan Teslik in May spoke to the boy, who was accompanied by his mother. The alleged victim claimed he and the suspect had been seeing each other for about two months and that their “sexual contact was by mutual consent,” court documents said.
A 14-year-old, however, by law cannot legally consent to sexual contact.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, statutory sexual assault occurs when the victim is younger than 16 and the defendant is four or more years older.
Rekich during a June 12 interview with Teslik corroborated the boy’s account, according to a police affidavit.
“(The defendant) stated that he had made some bad decisions and was very concerned with the consequences of those decisions,” the affidavit said.
He acknowledged he had sexual encounters with the child outside the Regal Cinema and at Memorial Park.
A preliminary hearing for Rekich is set for Aug. 2 before District Judge Kevin O’Donnell.