"Predator" ex-trooper, on parole for sex abuse, sent back to jail after molesting another teen
A former Pennsylvania state trooper who served a sentence for sexually abusing women and girls while on duty two decades ago has been sent back to prison after another sex crime involving a teen, reports CBS radio affiliate KYW.
Michael K. Evans, 52, reportedly pleaded guilty in 2000 to sex crimes involving three women and three girls in Montgomery County between 1997 and 1999. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison and ordered to resign from the force. Evans was released on parole in 2008, but was still under supervised release when he admitted to indecent assault with a 15-year-old girl in Berks County, KYW reports.
"He was a predator," prosecutor Roderick Fancher said, reports KYW. "He was using a badge as a disguise to prey on women. Twenty years ago, he got a significant state sentence and is out there doing it again now that he's out of prison. He's engaging in the exact same behavior, the exact same thing."
Tuesday, according to the Times Herald, a Montgomery County judge ordered him sentenced to an additional 2-½ to five years in prison for violating the terms of his parole-- the maximum sentence allowable under state sentencing guidelines. The judge reportedly said his latest offense was similar to his previous crimes.
"Certainly, he poses a danger to young women, who need protection from the courts from people like this defendant," Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter said, according to the paper.
Evans additionally will be sentenced in Berks County for the latest crime, reportedly to 5-10 years in a negotiated plea for indecent assault, corruption of minors and indecent exposure. The paper reports he admitted to fondling a 15-year-old girl at his Mertztown home while engaging in a sex act with a woman, and instructing the teen to pose for suggestive photographs.
At his 2000 sentencing, the Allentown Morning Call reported at the time, prosecutor Risa Ferman called Evans a predator who used his authority as a police officer to prey on vulnerable women. In the 1990s cases, Evans admitted in one instance to having sexual contact with a 15-year-old runaway he was transporting and offering to pay her for sex, the Morning Call reported. In another case, he admitted asking a 16-year-old to pose for suggestive photographs after responding to her home on the report of a burglary. In a third case, he reportedly admitted groping a teen girl he was transporting to a shelter.
He also reportedly admitted soliciting sex from a woman accused in a high-speed chase in exchange for leniency, offering to protect a woman in a domestic abuse case in exchange for sex and exposing himself in front of a woman hospitalized after a drug overdose and failed suicide attempt.
Evans' attorney sought a sentence of 1½-to-3-years in prison for Evans latest offense, according to the Times Herald, arguing the new crime had nothing to do with his previous role as a state trooper. During questioning in court, Evans said "I'm pretty upset with myself" and said he realizes the latest incident re-opened wounds for his previous victims, according to the paper.
"I feel the blame for that and the blame for my new victim," Evans testified.
Francher reportedly said he hopes Evans' sentence in Berks County will be imposed consecutive to the Montgomery County term.
"I hope he gets as much time as possible. He needs to be incapacitated," Fancher said.
