Third man charged in Centre County child predator sting pleads guilty, facing years in prison
A man accused of paying for sex with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl in the Centre Region pleaded guilty Tuesday and is facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Robert D. Mansberger, 59, of Huntingdon County, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, according to a plea agreement filed by the Justice Department last month.
He is the third of four men charged in a November child predator sting in Centre County to plead guilty. His sentencing has not been scheduled. A message was left with defense lawyer Edward “E.J.” Rymsza.
Mansberger responded to an online ad that offered sex with a 13-year-old girl and arranged through text messages with an undercover investigator to come to Happy Valley to pay for sex, Patton Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
He was arrested after paying a deposit to an undercover officer and admitted he intended to have sex with the teen, police wrote.
Gregory Wilson, of Mifflin County, was sentenced in June to 8 1/2 years in federal prison followed by 10 years of supervision. He also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor.
Wilson communicated with an undercover FBI agent who posed as an aunt of a 13-year-old girl and agreed to pay for sex with the child, federal prosecutors alleged.
Christopher L. Crispen, 33, of Howard, pleaded guilty in May to the same charge and is also facing a decade in prison. His sentencing has not been scheduled.
He was accused of sending a series of messages that discussed oral and anal sex to an undercover officer and was arrested after attempting to meet the phony teen at a gas station in Patton Township.
Crispen told investigators he planned to “(fool) around” with a 15-year-old and admitted he “knew what he was going to do was wrong,” a township police officer wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Walter T. Sitosky, 67, of Clearfield County, was also accused of responding to an online ad that offered sex with a phony teen. When interviewed, Sitosky told investigators he “wanted to feel young again,” police wrote. He has pleaded not guilty.
Sitosky and Mansberger are incarcerated at the Clinton County Correctional Facility.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 4:24 PM.