WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - The chief executive officer of a historic central Pennsylvania mansion and museum will remain jailed until his trial next month on federal child-sex and pornography charges, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann agreed Monday with federal prosecutors that 65-year-old Christopher G. Lee, of Boalsburg, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee prosecution.
Lee heads the Boal Mansion Museum in Boalsburg, about 140 miles east of Pittsburgh. The homestead features furnishings and artifacts from the Boal family, which founded the town where the museum is located, and the Farmers High School, which eventually became Penn State University.
U.S. Attorney Peter Smith has said the illegal sex occurred earlier this year on the museum premises, where students from across the United States and other countries volunteer to work as guides.
Defense attorney Kyle Rude argued that Lee has strong community ties and wouldn’t flee prosecution, and is not a danger despite a 2005 case in which he was accepted into a first offenders’ program on charges he molested minors.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Taylor argued that Lee has relatives in foreign countries, the financial means to travel and was apparently undeterred after authorities first searched his home in the connection with the investigation early this year.
Despite that, an FBI analysis of computer storage devices taken from Lee’s home during his October arrest showed he had continued to download child pornography after the earlier search.
Lee is charged with possessing child pornography and having sex with a 17-year-old he persuaded to cross state lines for that purpose. Federal prosecutors said the alleged victim lives in another country.
Lee is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 1 in federal court in Williamsport.
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Information from: Centre Daily Times, https://www.centredaily.com
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