Latrobe man charged with sexual assault of teen girl

A Latrobe man was jailed Monday in connection with the reported sexual assault of a teen girl in a wooded area near a city park last month, according to court papers.

Malachi J. Boone, 20, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and related offenses.

City police were called to Excela Health Latrobe Hospital emergency department on July 14 at 2 p.m. for a reported sexual assault. The 14-year-old girl told police she met in a wooded area near St. Clair Street Park with a person she had communicated with on social media and believed was a 15-year-old boy. When she arrived he appeared to be much older, according to a criminal complaint. He sexually assaulted her on a blanket he brought, only stopping when he thought he heard someone nearby, police said the girl told them.

She could not recall the suspect’s Snapchat username, as he had blocked her account.

The girl was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital. The wooded area is near the city’s border with McChesneytown in Derry Township. Police said they found the blanket there.

Authorities issued a plea for help from the public and reviewed surveillance video from multiple homes around that area.

Some of those cameras showed a man wearing a backpack, distressed jeans and glasses riding a black and yellow bicycle to the park at noon and leaving about 40 minutes later, according to court papers. That same afternoon, police said they responded to Lloyd Avenue after Boone reported being chased on his bicycle by two people in a vehicle.

After authorities made a connection that Boone may be a suspect in the sex assault based on his appearance and clothing captured on police body camera footage from the chase incident, he denied being in the park, according to court papers.

A witness who lives near the park identified Boone from a photo lineup as the man he saw that day with the 14-year-old girl. She also identified him in a photo lineup as the suspect, police said.

Boone was being held without bail at the Westmoreland County Prison. An Aug. 8 preliminary hearing is set. He did not have an attorney listed in online court records.

He had been free on recognizance bond in three cases filed last year that include charges of theft and possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana, according to online court records.