News

An Amwell Township man waived his criminal case to court Wednesday on charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl in a car parked along a South Strabane Township road Nov. 29. Thomas Manford Polen Jr., 22, of 1989 Dynamite Road, will stand trial on charges of statutory sexual assault and indecent assault. A charge of corruption of minors was dropped during a brief hearing before District Justice Gary Havelka in Central Court.

Polen was charged and picked up at his home Dec. 18, the same day a 16-year-old girl told Mt. Lebanon police that he attacked her in a high school bathroom. The school was locked down for 90 minutes. The 16-year-old later was charged with making false reports to police.

Polen and the 16-year-old previously had a relationship, and all three, including the 14-year-old, were friends, police said.

The incident involving the 14-year-old occurred along West Simmons Road. Polen said the sex was consensual, and that at one time he knew she was 14 years old, but that he had forgotten her age, police said.

Polen remains free on $25,000 bond and is forbidden from having contact with the girl.