Kunkletown man is charged with raping young girl

Published January 02. 2020 12:40PM

<p>By Terry Ahner</p><p>tahner@tnonline.com</p>

 

A Kunkletown man has been charged with raping a young girl.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by trooper Kevin Kreidler of the Pennsylvania State Police at Lehighton barracks:

At around 10 p.m. Aug. 21, the 9-year-old victim told her mother that Dirk Merkle Jr., 30, had raped her.

The victim’s mother then removed herself, the victim, and her 11-year-old daughter from Merkle’s residence and drove to her mother’s residence in Allentown.

During the drive, the victim said that she had been raped by Merkle between 6-7 p.m. Aug. 21, at which time the mother drove her children to St. Luke’s Allentown Campus.

A sexual assault examination kit was performed on the victim and placed into evidence at PSP Lehighton, where it was then transferred to the Wyoming Regional Laboratory for analysis.

At around 4 p.m. Aug. 22, troopers Nicholas De La Iglesia and Joseph Campano checked on Merkle’s welfare after receiving concerning text messages which were sent from him to the mother from Carbon County Children and Youth.

During that time, De La Iglesia interviewed Merkle, and he denied ever having any form of a sexual relationship with either of the mother’s daughters, and agreed to provide a DNA sample which could be compared to the sexual assault kit.

At around 4:30 p.m. Aug. 23, the victim was interviewed by a Forensic Interviewer at the Lehigh County Children’s Advocacy Center and referred to Merkle as “stupid Dirk.”

She said that Merkle has been sexually abusing her and her 11-year-old sister, and that while she has never seen Merkle sexually abuse her sister, he had made a sexually explicit video of her 11-year-old sister, showed it to her, and attempted to make her perform a sex act on him, but she refused.

In addition to the rape charge, Merkle also faces charges of statutory sexual assault; involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child; aggravated indecent assault; sexual assault; photographing, videotaping, depicting on computer or filming sexual acts; corruption of minors; indecent assault; and indecent exposure.

He is currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $100,000 straight bail, and is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Jan. 8 before District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton.

 

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Comments
Another sad, disturbing article on alleged child sexual assault. Am I missing something on the education of children. I thought they were being taught about safe and unsafe touch in grade school. Are they.
At a minimum children should be taught about Body Safety. And especially to be assertive and confident about communicating their concerns. Hear this people, 95 % know their abuser. This is Not Stranger Danger. Please know who your children are with. Talk to them daily about how their day went. They may be afraid, and will not just open up on their own.
Country Girl has posted some very relevant information. What I want to know is what happens if these accusations are not true? The Times News has pretty much destroyed someones life by publishing this. What if the mother made these girls accuse this man of crimes he didn't commit for some type of revenge? He offered DNA and the Times News didn't publish what came back from the testing.
This is crappy journalism made to sell papers and ad space. The story is not complete and things like this should not be published until people have their day in court. Yes it's public info but this is taking things too far. Not to mention an internet search could possibly link the alleged victims. Do you think they want the neighbors to put 2 and 2 together and be treated differently by their peers when their parents tell them this? Do any of you folks have a brain?
Shame on you Times News. I hope your re-branding fails.
Krystal - I do not agree at all. Please cite a code of ethics for media outlets that would support this being considered "crappy journalism", or worse, that the accused is being treated unfairly. Charges are announced against accused all the time - it is routine. Should charges against a defendant in a case such as this particular one (or others on a protected list) not be exposed? Where is that list? What leads you to believe that the DNA results are available? I see no reason to believe that, nor that this article should not have been published until such time they are. That may not become public until there is a trial. That isn't the way reporting works.
KM, by your logic Sabdusky’s charges should have remained secret until th verdict, we should never have known about OJ’s charges, and Epstein’s location of death should be secret. Charges, whether proven or not, are public records and TN is doing it’s job
My logic and opinion believes that the accusations against Jerry Sandusky should not have been made public until he went to trial. Same goes for Bill Cosby or any other person that supposedly commits a crime. With famous people and high profile cases a jury could be tainted by what they see or hear in the media. I'm not a lawyer, but I have studied a little bit of law while defending myself.
With that being said this crap would not fly in the UK, where our common law legal system is derived from. I totally understand this is public record, but nobody from the public went to the barracks to read the papers a newspaper did. If they didn't publish people's alleged misdeeds they would not have many stories. My question is simply what if it is not true? And who is responsible if this guy loses everything and gets harassed over something he didn't do?
Just for a moment, put yourself in this persons shoes should he actually be innocent. Imagine what your world could be like maybe you will see where I'm coming from.
Transparency is an important aspect of a fair legal system and the UK does not keep charges secret. If he was unjustly accused, the legal system will bare that out.

I am far more concerned about the victims rights to anonymity and hope the article dies not unmask them
There is a massive and unacceptable amount of child sexual abuse, which creates havoc for the victims for the rest of their lives. It is such a selfish and cruel thing to do to a child. *If* the facts are proven, and it sounds like there should be conclusive evidence one way or the other in this case, the convicted should receive the maximum sentence possible. What is interesting is, many child victims do not testify by their parents' choice, and a plea bargain is struck. What happens if DNA proof is found? Does the victim still need to testify, for a trial to occur and a just sentence be given? As the other comment here states, all parents must teach their children about improper touching, and telling an adult if something happens.
Would some one please answer my question. Are children being taught about safe and unsafe touch in grade school, or middle school.
Kudo's to the Carbon County Children and Youth Staff. They are Top Notch. They supported the little girl from Albrightsville
( I think Indian Mtn. Lakes area) who had the strength to testify against her abuser a couple of years ago.
I don't know Country Girl, I don't have children and can't recall if I learned that back in the 80's in school. It is definitely something that should be taught because there is obviously a pedophile epidemic. Victims should know that not all adults are monsters and every elementary school needs a yearly program to promote an open door policy for any issue they might have.
Sorry if anyone thinks I am sticking up for a possible pedophile. My issues are with the legal system and the media. I don't think this is the public's business yet and it is not fair.
Happy New Year Country Girl! I really enjoy reading your opinions and I applaud you for being an advocate for abuse victims.
Thanks Krystal, I am sorta surprised that you enjoy my opinions.
Regarding my negative occupant & adm. statements.....I an under no illusion that I will ever change any of the Trumpers thinking.
Unfortunately, it seems in most cases 30 minutes of unsafe touch instruction is no match for a man practicing his craft for decades. But, it's a start and it's better than nothing. The older I get the more I think these predators are WAAAAAAAAAAAY better at naturally selecting their victims than we will ever be at protecting them.

I agree kudo's to all those young people that had the strength to speak up and all those that supported them.
I think those are the new words preferred instead of good touch, bad touch used in the past. So as not to confuse or condemn the sensual nature of touch for future healthy sexual encounters. Obviously, more in depth discussion should follow those words.
I think this kid is making this all up. Why isn't her sister cooperating with her story? Where is this video? You can never fully erase anything from a computer. It's called "The Ghost in the Machine". There are no facts. The guy provided DNA without hesitation along with his claims of innocence, but he is sent to prison on a slew of charges, and his name is all over NE Pennsylvania now? If this turns out to be a made up story from a 9-year-old she has already ruined this guy. What should be her punishment if she was just mad at "Stupid Dirk". 9-year-olds are old enough to read stories on the net and say it happened to them.
Do you know what evidence they do and don't have? It may very well be that they have video and still images, since they charged him for that. They wouldn't just slap all those charges on him based on a story, IMO. If they did, there could be a very large lawsuit in their future. I doubt that is the case.
Unlike you, I respect and trust the police and prosecutor that they have the evidence to convict. They collected the DNA in August and surely have the results and if it had exonerated him there would be no charges
I missed that in the article, it states he was charged with videotaping the 11-year-old sister in a sexually explicit manner. To the poster who was concerned they may find out this is all trumped up - and this man's reputation is being unfairly besmirched - it sounds like there may be significant evidence of the charges.
So let me get this straight, you want charges to remain secret but on the other hand you want all the evidence laid out in the public square before any judge has had the opportunity to rule on its admissibility? Makes no sense.

Don’t you think it’s safe to say the dna evidence didn’t clear him? If it did, don’t worry about Dirk, he will get a million dollar settlement.
If they are putting it out there then yes put it all out. If you're going to accuse someone of something so heinous and post things the girl said what can it hurt? It is not safe to say anything about the DNA because TN leaves you guessing. Sure you can be charged on probable cause but what's the evidence? She accused him and that's enough? Do they have the videos? What did the results of the DNA test say?
I ask a lot of questions and have strong opinions about the way things work when it comes to our criminal justice system. We are no longer innocent until proven guilty, we're pretty much made to look guilty before we even get to trial.
How could you bore out a young girl like that? He must be hung very small to be able to fit into a tight unit.
I think you didn't get enough attention growing up so now you have to make attention getting cruel, uncalled for statements. I can just imagine the number of women that love straining their elbows for you.

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