CLEARFIELD – Attorneys for a Karthaus man accused of having sex with a student when he was employed at the West Branch School are asking for evidence to be suppressed.
State police filed felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with someone less than 16-years-old, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, school-intercourse/sexual contact with student and corruption of minors as well as a misdemeanor count of indecent assault charges against Michael William Narehood, 23, in May.
On Wednesday a hearing was held for an omnibus pre-trial motion asking the judge to suppress Narehood’s confession, which was filed by the defense team of Helen Stolinas and Ryan Sayers.
Before discussion began, District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. noted that the motion was filed a month after the deadline for omnibus pre-trial motions.
Although a new attorney, Stolinas, was added to the case, they did not file a motion to extend the time to file these motions, Shaw told Judge Paul E. Cherry.
Cherry then asked if the defense had filed a motion to compel discovery and Stolinas said they did not prior to her joining the case. Later, she asked for the information on the case and shortly after that, the DA’s office supplied it.
She decided to file the omnibus motion quickly after she received a recording of Narehood’s interview with police, she said.
Prior to her attachment to the case, she said there was an effort to resolve the case and the defense did not request any more information.
Cherry responded that a plea possibility does not stop the time frame which requires omnibus motions be filed within 30 days following arraignment.
He noted that if the defense files a motion for discovery, he usually gives them an additional 60 days to file omnibus motions.
Cherry also pointed out that Narehood was aware there was a video and the defense did not need to have full discovery to know that.
Shaw noted that the confession is mentioned “right in the (criminal) complaint.”
However, Stolinas stated that she was not aware that Narehood was so upset at the end of the interview that intervention was needed, until after she saw the video.
Stolinas asked Cherry to hear her motion to suppress “in the interest of justice for Narehood.”
In his response, Shaw commented that just because “someone new comes along, it does not mean they get a second bite of the apple.”
Cherry granted the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss the defense’s omnibus pre-trial motion, ending the argument.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Narehood was alone with the 14-year-old girl in his office on May 10 at 4:15 p.m. when he began kissing and fondling the victim. This reportedly led to the two having sex.
A LinkedIn profile lists Narehood’s title as assistant technology coordinator at the school, beginning in July of 2018. He is not listed as an employee of the school on its Web site.
Narehood is free on $50,000 bail. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 28 through Oct. 30.
