Man who served 17 years for trying to make Pittsburgh teen his sex slave could return behind bars

A man infamous for kidnapping a 13-year-old Pittsburgh girl with the intent of making her a sex slave 17 years ago must stand before a federal judge next week and demonstrate why he should not return behind bars, court documents filed Friday show.

Scott Tyree, 55, originally from Fairfax County, Va., is accused of violating the terms of his probation since his release in early December, probation officers Michael Howard and Marcus White wrote in a petition for a hearing in U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania.

Tyree was released from a North Carolina federal prison to Renewal Inc., a Downtown Pittsburgh halfway house, after serving 17 years of his nearly 20-year sentence. He received time off for good behavior.

According to federal probation officers, Tyree admitted last month to using computers and viewing pornography online — among two things he is prohibited from doing.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer granted the probation officers’ request and scheduled the hearing for Friday, July 12.

Tyree, the defendant, will have to show cause as to why his supervised release should not be revoked.

Fight to keep Tyree ‘away from Pittsburgh’

Then 13 and living with her parents in Crafton Heights, Alicia Kozakiewicz disappeared Jan. 1, 2002.

Four days later, authorities found the girl chained to a bed in Tyree’s Virginia townhouse.

In 2003, Tyree pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in a sex act with a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor.

In late May of this year, Kozakiewicz looked tearful and at times angry in a Downtown Pittsburgh courtroom as she stood feet from the man who abducted her and begged the judge to keep Tyree from settling in Pittsburgh.

“I was shocked,” she told the judge of learning of Tyree’s release via a Facebook message from Trib news partner WPXI-TV earlier this year. “I couldn’t speak. I let out an anguished scream.”

In a March 14 motion related to victims’ rights, Kozakiewicz’s attorney Emily Town asked the court to transfer Tyree “away from Pittsburgh” and away from Kozakiewicz’s current home in New York City.

Since she was rescued, Kozakiewicz has become a motivational speaker. She founded Alicia’s Project to help others thwart online predators.

Kozakiewicz said that while she no longer lives in Pittsburgh, her family does. She visits at least once a month. She attended Point Park University — about a block away from the halfway house to which Tyree has been released.

A late March status report indicated both sides had agreed to stipulations on Tyree’s release, including that he not come within a certain perimeter of the family’s home — something that would be enforced by GPS monitoring.

Such safeguards may not be required if Tyree fails to make the case at next week’s hearing that he should not be sent back to prison.

Tyree’s probation terms included requirements to obtain mental health, substance abuse and sex offender treatment. He is not allowed to have contact with minors involving money, may not possess pornographic materials and not allowed to have any contact with Kozakiewicz.

When confronted during a June 10 meeting, Tyree told federal officers he had accessed pornographic images and live sexual videos on computers at the school he was attending and at the Renewal housing facility between April 6 and May 20, the probation officers said.

Federal officers further accused Tyree, who agreed to submit to polygraph lie detector testing, of using “countermeasures during the examination to defeat the test” on June 19. The court document did not elaborate on what those measures were.