Lehighton man given long state prison term for rape of young girl

A Lehighton man was sentenced on Thursday morning to a long state prison term after previously admitting raping a young girl.

Timothy Baker, 33, was sentenced by Judge Steven R. Serfass to 66 to 168 months in a state correctional institution on a charge of rape by forcible compulsion, a felony 1.

Serfass, in imposing the sentence, said, “These are egregious facts, despicable facts.”

He continued, “This young lady will have to deal with nightmares the rest of her life.”

Quoting from a written note the victim gave the court, Serfass said the victim said she would “forever remember what you did to her.”

He also pleaded to a charge of aggravated indecent assault. He was originally charged with five counts of corruption of minors and indecent assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count each of rape by forcible compulsion and statutory sexual assault.

All the other counts were dropped in a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office, which was approved by the victim’s family.

He admitted raping a then 11-year-old girl. He pleaded to the two counts involving two separate incidents at two residences in Lehighton. Police charged he had sexually assaulted the victim multiple times.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Lehighton Detective Matt Arner:

On June 14, 2017, Arner said an 11-year-old girl was brought to the police station by her mother.

She told police she had been sexually assaulted by a man identified as Baker, over the course of several months.

The victim said there were at least five incidents at two residences in Lehighton.

Arner spoke to Baker on July 5 but he denied all allegations against him at that time.

Arner also spoke with two of the girl’s classmates, and both confirmed that the victim confided to them about the allegations in May.

Defense attorney Matthew J. Mottola, of the public defender’s office, said Baker has many health issues including mental health problems. He said he suffers seizures and had one while being an inmate in the county prison. He has been there since his arrest on the charges.

He said before these incidents Baker lived a law-abiding life, served in the Army reserves and had no prior criminal convictions.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Gazo, who prosecuted the case, said that Baker’s conduct was “despicable,” noting that he assaulted the victim multiple times. Gazo said he had no sympathy for Baker’s health issues and said a long state prison term was warranted.

Baker did not make any statement to the court when asked by Serfass if he had anything he wanted to say.

In addition to the prison term, Serfass ruled that Baker must register for the rest of his life as a sexual offender.

He also ordered the defendant to submit to a sexual offender’s evaluation, follow all provisions of Megan’s Law, have no contact of any kind with the victim or her family, have no unsupervised contact with any minor children, submit a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000 and have a mental health evaluation.

He was given credit for 694 days already spent in prison on the charges.