Pa. man sentenced on sexual assault charges

August 31, 2007|By DON AINES

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A Chambersburg man was sentenced Wednesday in Franklin County Court to spend between 11 1/2 and 23 months in the county jail on charges he sexually molested two girls.

Mark Edward Brunk, 45, of 5147 Church Road, had pleaded no contest in March to charges of concealment of the whereabouts of a child, indecent assault and statutory sexual assault. On Wednesday, however, he changed his pleas on the concealment and statutory sexual assault charges to guilty during his sentencing hearing before Judge Carol Van Horn.

"You were 44, she was 14," Van Horn told Brunk, referring to one of the victims. "She cannot consent to a sexual relationship."

Pennsylvania State Police charged Brunk in three different cases involving two girls. One case involved his sexual relationship with a girl in 2005 and 2006 when she was 14 and 15 years old, according to court records.

In March 2006, that girl ran away from the Children's Aide Society home in Chambersburg, and Brunk gave her a place to stay, including time spent at a cabin in Fulton County, according to court records.

"I did provide her a place so they couldn't find her," Brunk told Van Horn.

In another, Brunk was charged with indecent assault with a 12-year-old girl in August 2005.

"My life has changed in so many ways," said one of the victims, now 14. She said she no longer trusts men, and "I want to make sure no other girls go through my experience."

In addition to the jail sentence, Van Horn sentenced Brunk to spend another five years on probation and be subject to registration requirements for 10 years under Pennsylvania's Megan's Law for convicted sexual offenders.

The sentence included a condition that Brunk not have contact with any females younger than 18. Van Horn told him any violations of the conditions of his sentence would result in him being sent to state prison.

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