Separate assault cases end in guilty pleas, sentencings
A Washington man scheduled to go to trial Monday on rape and related charges entered a plea to simple assault when the victim declined to testify.
Gregory A. Powell Jr., 28, of Wilna Street, was charged in connection with an incident in McDonald in early August 2011.
The woman, then 24, said friends brought Powell back to her apartment about 5 a.m. after meeting him at a bar and proceeding to a party.
She said she awakened to find Powell engaging in sex with her. She testified at a preliminary hearing that she didn’t call police but went to Canonsburg General Hospital the next day. Hospital personnel called police.
Emery sentenced Powell to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail, giving him credit for 18 months served.
A Mon Valley man who pleaded guilty late last year in Washington County Court to charges of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl and two counts of corrupting a minor was sentenced last week to 4 to 12 years in a state prison.
Robert Lapinsky, 67, of 704 Water St., North Charleroi, was initially sent to the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh.
Judge Katherine B. Emery ordered that Lapinsky register as an offender under Megan’s Law and have no contact with the girl, who was spending the night at his home along with her parents in August 2012.