Problems could delay the start of a suspended Pa. high school principal’s sexual misconduct trial

WILLIAMSPORT — Issues involving a Williamsport police prosecutor and agent could delay the start of Lycoming County sexual harassment trial of suspended Williamsport Area High School principal.

One of the motions filed Wednesday on behalf of Roger W. Freed seeks a continuance if the issues are not resolved by Nov. 5, when the three-day trial is scheduled to begin. The jury has already been selected.

Williamsport police asked Judge Eric R. Linhardt to waive the subpoena for Agent Laura Kitko, who Freed wants to testify during an April 25, 2020, victim interview.

Her hearing concerned an unrelated case in which charges against an adult man included rape of a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor.

Kitko will not be able to appear at the trial because she is scheduled to undergo major surgery next Tuesday and will be absent from duty for several weeks.

She will be required to testify unless otherwise specified because the man informed her that the time frame for filing charges in the rape case is a two-year period ending in January 2020, according to defense attorney Leonard Gryskewicz Jr.

The defense claims the man used his allegations against Freed, which related to the same period, to provide an alibi in the rape case.

Linhardt will also have to decide whether learning the jury’s timeline for the rape charges would violate U.S. District Judge Nancy L. Butts’ ruling, affirmed by the Supreme Court panel.

Butts ruled in the case of former Williamsport High School English teacher Michelle L. Pulizzi, in which the victim was the same man, that the jury could have known the time and place of the crime and the potential punishment, but not the details of the charges.

Pulizzi did not appear in court, but She pleaded not guilty to the charge of harassment through communication. She was accused of sexual assault at the institution and inciting sexual contact with a student.

Freed’s defense is also seeking the court’s permission to present the contents of a September 11, 2022 telephone conversation he had with State Trooper Matthew Miller, the lead investigator.

In it, the man alleged that his first sexual contact with Freed occurred when he was 16 years old outside Williamsport, and that the educator slightly penetrated his anus during a later trip to Pittsburgh.

Court approval would be required because rape protection laws generally prohibit the admission of a victim’s past sexual conduct.

Gryskiewicz explained that he wanted to use this information to undermine the victim’s credibility because what he told Miller about anal penetration was contrary to what he asked Freed years later in text messages.

Freed, 36, of Cogan Station, is accused of performing oral sex on the student more than 30 times over a seven-year period ending in 2022.

The defense admits the two had sexual relations however, he claims that this occurred after the man had graduated from college and reached the age of majority, which would not have been a crime. Freed was not married at the time.

The search warrant affidavit states that Freed stated in a June 21 state police interview that he sexual contact with the student lasted over seven years.

Freed, a former ninth-grade principal, is charged with 30 counts of sexual contact with a student and one count each of indecent assault, sexual assault and corruption of minors.

He is free on $75,000 bail and suspended without pay by the school district.