Hearing continued in Lohr rape case
CARMICHAELS – The preliminary hearing has been rescheduled for a Cumberland Township man accused of raping a young boy placed in his care numerous times during a four-year period.
The hearing for John Robert Lohr, 56, of 671 Ceylon Road, had been scheduled Tuesday before District Judge Lee Watson, but was continued until 3:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at the request of his attorney.
Lohr, a member of the advisory board for Greene County Children and Youth Services, was charged by state police Aug. 22 with rape by forcible compulsion, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, corruption of minors and indecent assault by forcible compulsion.
Police allege Lohr forced the boy, who had been placed in his care by CYS, to participate in sexual acts on numerous occasions from October 2009 to Aug. 14 and on at least one occassion held a knife to the boy’s throat and held him down in a chair. The boy told police Lohr threatened to kill him and his family members if he told anyone about the assaults.
When confronted by family members Aug. 18, Lohr fled after first asking them to give him an hour before police were called. He was found Aug. 19 in Fayette County inside a vehicle he drove to Ohiopyle State Park by park rangers. Police said Lohr had connected a hose from the tailpipe of his vehicle to the cab in an attempt to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Lohr was flown to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh where he recovered. Several days later, he was sent to the behavioral medicine unit at Fairmont General Hospital in Fairmont, W.Va. ,where West Virginia authorities arrested him Aug. 29 as a pre-trial felon.
Lohr remains in Greene County jail on $750,000 bond.