Nov 15, 2013 3 min read

A 33-year-old Johnstown man who met a teenage girl from the Mon Valley through an online dating website in May was sentenced Friday to 2 1/2 to 6 years in a state prison after pleading guilty to committing sex crimes via the Internet and corrupting her morals.

Victor Eugene Pulgar, who was given credit for time served in the county jail, also will face 5 years of probation after completing his prison term.

Judge Katherine B. Emery also ordered Pulgar to report to authorities as a convicted sex offender under Megan’s Law for the next 25 years.

When Pulgar and the girl, who was then 16, first established contact online, he told her he was 23. She met him in person when he came to her home, but after a few weeks, she found that she did not trust him. He reportedly told her he would harm any of her male friends if she spent time with them, obtained her password to her Facebook account and sent messages to her friends.

Pulgar also was accused of asking the girl to send him photographs of herself wearing only underwear or unclothed. She claimed he threatened to post the photos on Facebook and sent threatening messages to her family and friends. Police said he also sent her nude photographs of himself.

The girl told police she tried to end the relationship, but Pulgar wouldn’t let her, and the two met at the Elco ballfields in July of last year. Her parents then contacted Roscoe-Elco-Stockdale-Allenport police, who filed charges against Pulgar.

He pleaded guilty in August to having a computer photo of a sexual nature of a minor, unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a computer or other device and corrupting the morals of a minor.

Charges of rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats, indecent assault, open lewdness, harassment and sexual abuse of a child were dismissed.

Emery granted Pulgar a furlough so he can face charges in Ebensburg of selling obscene or sexual materials, coercing or threatening to expose a secret and harassment by communication using lewd or threatening language. She is requiring him to report weekly to the Washington County adult probation office until Dec. 13, when he must return to jail. Calls to Cambria County Friday about the status of Pulgar’s case there were not immediately returned.

The judge accepted Assistant District Attorney Kristin Clingerman’s plea bargain with Pulgar to spare the teenage victim from having to testify during a trial.

Pulgar’s attorney, Jacob Wyland, said Pulgar intended to stand trial but then changed his mind.

Emery also ordered Pulgar to forfeit his computer and other electronic communication devices so their hard drives can be erased and sold to pay restitution to the victim, who lost the use of her cell phone because it was needed as evidence.