SUNBURY - A 31-year-old Shamokin man charged in August with 16 felony counts of sexual abuse of children pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to dissemination of child pornography and possession of child pornography and was denied a reduction in bail.
John H. Straub Jr., of 132 W. Willow St., entered the plea before Northumberland County Judge William Wiest, who denied a request by Straub's attorney, Michael Romance of the county Public Defender's Office, to reduce his client's $50,000 cash bail to supervised unsecured bail. Straub was recommitted to the county jail, where he has remained since his arrest.
Straub was charged by Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Thomas W. Trusal on Aug. 5 with multiple counts of child pornography after investigators downloaded from his computer sexually explicit videos of children being abused.
Trusal reported in an affidavit that Straub was interviewed and allegedly admitted that he downloaded the child pornography files found on the computer and admitted he knew they were being shared on the Internet and accessible to anyone.
Wiest ordered an evaluation by the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board to help determine if Straub is a sexually violent predator. After a recommendation is provided by the assessment board, the judge will rule if the defendant is a sexually violent predator.
The judge ordered the adult probation department to conduct a pre-sentence investigation within 90 days.
Additional charges filed against Straub will not be prosecuted at the time of sentencing.