LEBANON - A few hours after being charged with having sex with a 14-year-old girl in his Lebanon Valley Mall office, a civilian recruiter for the Army was back on the job yesterday. Roy Troutman, 29, of the 700 block of Lehman Street, Lebanon, was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault and corruption of minors. After being arraigned, he was released on $25,000 bail. "I'm working for now," said Troutman, who called from his mall office after his arraignment. He said he wouldn't comment on the charges.

How long he keeps his job will depend on an investigation done by Troutman's boss, Brian Peiffer, manager of the Army Recruiting Battalion in New Cumberland.

The investigation will begin immediately and could take "an hour, a week or a month," Peiffer said. If he decides the allegations are true, Troutman will be fired, Peiffer said.

"I would not tolerate any kind of impropriety," he said. But Peiffer said he could not, by law, take action based on allegations by police.

Investigators said the girl, who Troutman knew previously, went to his office in the mall in May and performed a sex act on him. Two witnesses saw her go into Troutman's office and one of them said the girl admitted having sex, according to court records.

Police said Troutman initially denied having sexual contact with the girl but later admitted it.

Paul Zechman, chief of the county's detectives, said the contact between Troutman and the girl had nothing to do with Troutman's job as a recruiter and was apparently an isolated incident.

Troutman is part of an Army program involving civilian recruiters that began three or four years ago, Peiffer said. All seven of the recruiting offices Peiffer supervises in the midstate are staffed by civilians, he said.

Peiffer said his investigation could "piggyback" on the investigation by police, but he wouldn't wait for action by county courts on the case before he made a decision about Troutman's employment.