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Registered sex offender charged with raping child in Cumberland County

Patriot-News - 5/18/2023

A convicted child molester and registered sex offender has been charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in his home.

Dennis E. Meyer Jr., 45, of Silver Spring Township, was charged last week with forcible rape of a child and 16 related sex offenses, mostly felonies, in connection with assaults inside his home in the first block of Sunset Drive.

Police became aware of the allegations in April when someone called the state’s child abuse hotline, known as ChildLine, to report suspected sexual abuse by Meyer against a girl he knew.

Specially-trained investigators interviewed the girl and she disclosed that Meyer started touching her one and half to two years ago when she was nine or 10 years old. She has special education needs and believed that Meyer was taking advantage of her, according to court records.

She described repeated sexual abuse to police that she tried to resist, but could not because Meyer was older and stronger, according to the records. Meyer is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs more than 200 pounds.

Meyer bought her “numerous gifts to make up for it,” including an iPad, the girl told police, “so she won’t tell anyone.” She was nine or ten when the abuse began, she told police and the last incident occurred was when she was 11.

Police concluded in court records that they believe Meyer engaged in oral sexual intercourse with the girl.

Court records listed the offenses as beginning in early 2020, which was about 13 months after Meyer finished a 10-year prison sentence for molesting a 5-year-old girl in his home.

Meyer is a lifetime registered sex offender after he pleaded no contest in 2008 to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with the 5-year-old girl. He served the maximum sentence and was released in November 2018.

The state’s sex offender registry is simply a notification tool to allow neighbors, parents and others about residents convicted of certain sex crimes. The registry does not limit where sex offenders live or restrict them from being around children once they complete their sentence as Meyer had.

People who leave children alone with a known registered sex offender can be reported to the state’s child welfare agency, known as Children, Family and Youth, but there are no criminal penalties unless the person had been previously warned that their child was in danger. Those provisions do not apply to sex offenders’ own children or their spouse’s children.

The girl’s relationship to Meyer, if any, was not disclosed in court records to protect her identity.

Meyer was arrested May 10 on the charges and booked into the county jail under a $250,000 bond. He posted the bond through a professional bondsman and was released on May 15.

If convicted, Meyer could face a 25-year mandatory prison sentence as a two-time offender.

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