Man charged with sexually assaulting teenage boy agrees to plead guilty

A 42-year-old Tamaqua man, charged with sexually assaulting a young boy in Lehighton, offered to plead guilty to one of two charges filed against him.

Ricky Lee Propst, West Spruce Street, waived the hearing that was scheduled before District Judge Edward Lewis of Jim Thorpe.

Propst was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child (a felony charge) and indecent assault (a misdemeanor).

He agreed to plead guilty to the indecent assault charge. Also, Judge Lewis reduced his bail to $100,000 unsecured at the request of his attorney. A stipulation was imposed that he has no contact with the victim and the victim's family.

A court appearance for Propst is set for Jan. 7.

The defendant was arrested on Nov. 12 by officer Michael J. Svetik of the Lehighton Police Department. The alleged offenses committed by Propst are believed to have occurred in March 2007.

Svetik's affidavit of probably cause states that a female approached him on May 26 of this year and was concerned because her cousin told her he was sexually assaulted by Propst two years earlier.

When Svetik interviewed the child, who was under the age of 13, the child said as recently as two weeks prior the defendant "blocked his path...and he grabbed his buttocks."

Svetik alleges in the affidavit that when the youngster was interviewed at a Children's Advocacy Center, he gave a detailed account of the alleged assault from the spring of 2007.

The police officer said that Propst denied some of the allegations, but "did admit to touching the victim inappropriately on several occasions."