A Harrison man who is a registered sex offender faces multiple felony charges after a 13-year-old told detectives that the man regularly touched them inappropriately for nearly six years.
Adam Rezak, 37, of the 1100 block of Liberty Avenue was charged by Allegheny County Police with two counts each of indecent assault and aggravated indecent assault along with counts of unlawful contact with a minor, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of a minor, which all are felonies. He also was charged with a count of indecent exposure.
Rezak is being detained in the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh after a judge ruled at his arraignment that he poses a threat to the child he is accused of assaulting, according to court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled before District Judge Carolyn Bengel on Nov. 9.
Police also charged Rezak’s girlfriend, Lindsay Ann Crissman, 36, of Harrison, who was responsible for the teen’s care, with a felony count of endangering the welfare of a child. Crissman was released from jail after a Pittsburgh bail agency posted a $50,000 bond on her behalf, according to court records.
Her preliminary hearing before Bengel also is scheduled for Nov. 9.
Harrison police asked county investigators to assist with the case after the child’s aunt notified officials at the school they attend that she suspected Rezak was abusing the child, according to a criminal complaint.
Detectives said they observed a forensic interview with the child Oct. 27 at A Child’s Place Advocacy Center at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. The teen said Rezak began touching them inappropriately starting when they were about 6 and continued to do it regularly until the day before the interview, the complaint said.
The child told investigators that Rezak ignored their pleas for him to stop when he assaulted them, according to the complaint.
Crissman told police that she has known Rezak since grade school and they began dating about six years ago, police said.
She said she was aware that Rezak is a convicted sex offender but told police she believed the accusations made against him were “fabricated by the victims,” the complaint said.
The woman also initially denied knowing anything about the current sexual assault allegations being made, the complaint said. But when confronted with details that emerged from the forensic interview with the child, Crissman said she, in fact, had witnessed some of the inappropriate behavior but did not report it to authorities, police said.
Crissman also initially denied contacting Rezak when she learned that the teen’s aunt told school authorities she suspected child abuse, the complaint said.
But after officers told Crissman that the teen had participated in a forensic interview, she admitted to calling Rezak to say that the teen, not her, was the source of the allegations being made against him, the complaint said.
Crissman also told police that on one occasion when she confronted him about inappropriate behavior with the teen, he began to punch himself and said “something is sick in his head,” according to the complaint.
Rezak pleaded guilty in 2012 to a felony count of statutory sexual assault. He was sentenced to nine to 18 months in jail along with eight years and six months of probation, according to court records. The charges were filed by county police in August 2011.
He was arrested after a 15-year old accused him of sexually assaulting them while they were staying at a friend’s house during the summer of 2011.
The teen testified at Rezak’s preliminary hearing that Rezak and his girlfriend repeatedly asked them to engage in sex and that Rezak gave them marijuana on three occasions in the month before the sexual assault took place.
In July 2013, Rezak pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old filed by county police and was sentenced to two years of probation, according to court records.
Rezak was added to the state’s Megan’s List of sexual offenders on Feb. 25, 2014, according to the website.
