Crime & Safety
Man Admits to Sex Assaults of 4 Teenage Girls
Incidents involving Ryan Mellowship, now 21, occurred in South Whitehall and Upper Macungie, records say.
A young man who confessed to sexually assaulting several teenage girls in South Whitehall and Upper Macungie townships --one of the incidents was on New Year's Day of 2011 -- pleaded guilty this week in Lehigh County Court.
Online court records show that Ryan Mellowship, now 21 and with no known address, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of statutory sexual assault in each of four cases brought against him. The charges involved incidents on Jan. 1, 2011, July 1, 2011 and July 1, 2012, the records say.
The Morning Call reported that the charges against Mellowship involved four teenage girls. One was 13, two were 14 and one was 15 when the incidents began, The Call story said.
Related charges against Mellowship such as involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault and corruption of minors were dropped, the records show.
Mellowship also pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary out of South Whitehall. That incident occurred Jan. 11 of this year. Charges of burglary, criminal trespass and theft by unlawful taking were dropped, the records show.
In fact, Mellowship was in Lehigh County Prison on the burglary charges when he was arrested on the sexual assault charges and arraigned April 11 by District Judge Jacob Hammond of South Whitehall. Hammond set bail of $300,000 on the sexual assault charges.
According to a previous Patch story, Upper Macungie Det. Justin Wheeler was investigating an alleged child sexual abuse case in the township when he learned that Mellowship may have sexually abused other juveniles "in numerous jurisdictions in Lehigh County," court documents said.
Mellowship confessed to investigators and "also admitted to being sexually involved with several other juvenile females," the documents said.
Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 19 before Judge Robert Steinberg. Mellowship remains in county prison.