Lock Haven man found guilty of sex charges involved intellectually disabled woman

After a trial spanning two days and about two and a half hours of deliberation Tuesday, a jury found a Lock Haven man guilty of sex charges involving an intellectually disabled woman in 2012.

Gary Gephart, 54, was charged last year with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a mentally disabled person, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault stemming from an incident at her State College residence in 2012. The first day of the trial began with testimony from the woman, who District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said in opening statements has an IQ equivalent to that of a third-grader.

The woman, now 62, said she knew Gephart and his wife from a paper route all three worked and the couple had helped her move things from a storage unit and with things around her apartment from time to time. Gephart went to her home in September 2012 to fix a table and return a DVD player that was left in his car during one of the moves.

Gephart had mentioned giving her a massage during a phone conversation prior to the visit, she said, and she was OK with the massage, as long as he only rubbed her arms and legs. While he was over that day, the woman said Gephart gave her a massage in her bedroom and performed sex acts on her.

The woman told a caregiver at the apartments about the incident a few days later and State College police began an investigation.

But Gephart, the only witness called by defense attorney Karen Muir, offered a different account. Gephart said he had gone to the woman’s apartment to fix the table and return the DVD player. But Gephart maintained that the woman came on to him and instigated the sexual contact.

This was not the only story Gephart told police and the prosecution hammered changes in Gephart’s story over the course of their investigation.

State College police Detective Chris Weaver said Monday that Gephart initially denied anything sexual taking place and volunteered to have DNA samples taken.

Taped statements to police from two later interviews were played in court. In the first one, Gephart admitted to digitally penetrating the woman, but said nothing about any advances toward him, which he didn’t mention until the other interview.

During his testimony, Gephart admitted to lying to police on several occasions because he didn’t want his wife to find out about what happened.

Much of the jury’s decision to convict or acquit hinged on determining whether the woman had the mental capacity to exercise reasonable judgment about consenting to sex. The prosecution called an expert witness, Dr. Michael Wolff, a licensed psychologist who works at Penn State who prepared a report on her mental capacity for State College police.

IQ tests performed earlier in her life determined she had an IQ of about 70, Wolff said, and based upon tests and meetings with the woman, Wolff opined that she has a limited comprehension of sex that would render her incapable of making such judgments.

“The law does not permit a 54-year-old man to have sex with a person with the mental capacity of a 9-year-old, a third grader essentially,” Parks Miller said.

Muir questioned discrepancies in the report, pointing out to the jury that neither the draft nor the final copy was signed or dated, the subjective nature of portions of the testing and possible bias of the report that could be caused by the funding for the report, half of which provided by State College police and the other by the Centre County Women’s Resource Center.

Muir also argued that the woman has shown herself capable of reasonable judgment by holding jobs, living alone, handling money and signing legally binding release forms allowing Wolff and her caseworker to disclose information about her during the trial.

“You could find she exercises reasonable judgment because she does it in her everyday life,” Muir said.

Parks Miller asked President Judge Thomas King Kistler, who presided over the trial, to revoke Gephart’s bail after the verdicts were handed down and place him in custody. The judge denied the request. Gephart remains free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 19.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Lock Haven man found guilty of sex charges involved intellectually disabled woman."