Central Pennsylvania man gets years in prison after child predator sting in Centre County
A central Pennsylvania man was sentenced Tuesday to 8 1/2 years in federal prison for arranging to pay for sex with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl in the State College area.
Robert D. Mansberger, 59, of Huntingdon County, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann to 10 years of supervision once he is released from prison. Brann recommended Mansberger serve his time at a federal prison in Union County.
He is the third of four men charged in a 2023 prostitution sting in Centre County to plead guilty and be sentenced. The fourth pleaded guilty and is awaiting his sentencing.
Mansberger responded in November 2023 to an online advertisement for paid sex, Patton Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. He then spoke with an undercover officer and agreed to meet in the State College area for sex with a girl he believed to be 13 years old.
He was arrested in Patton Township after he paid a deposit to the undercover officer. Mansberger then admitted he intended to have sex with the 13-year-old, police wrote. He pleaded guilty in August to one count of attempted enticement of a minor.
Every aspect of Mansberger’s life — including his marriage, his employment and his reputation — was drastically altered by his arrest, defense lawyer Edward “E.J.” Rymsza wrote in a pre-sentence memo to Brann.
His wife of more than 33 years divorced him while he was incarcerated and Mansberger lost “all of his assets” in the split, Rymsza wrote.
In seeking leniency, Rymsza described Mansberger as “essentially a decent and honorable man” who is “ashamed of himself and is extremely contrite.”
A dozen people wrote letters of support on his behalf, including his son Jordan. He described his father’s arrest as the “worst day of my life.”
“The hurt has been felt throughout our family and community as he is not someone who could ever be replaced. Almost all of the anger that I have felt toward him in the last year has been because of how it has affected my mom,” Jordan Mansberger wrote. “She’s honestly doing better than I thought she would have, but I know that it still gets to her when she’s alone and that she feels embarrassed by the entire situation, as do I.”
He also told Brann no one who knows his father would have ever predicted he was capable of making a “very, very stupid, selfish, and awful mistake.”
“But, at the same time, the same amount of family and community members that are disappointed and angry with him also miss him, forgive him and want him to return in the worst way,” he wrote. “Family events aren’t the same without him, and nothing really is.”
Gregory Wilson, 52, of Mifflin County; Christopher L. Crispen, 34, of Howard; and Walter T. Sitosky Jr., 67, of Clearfield County, also pleaded guilty to a count of attempted enticement of a minor in connection with the sting.
Wilson was sentenced in June to 8 1/2 years in prison, as well as 10 years of supervised release. He’s serving his time at a prison in Kentucky and is scheduled to be released Dec. 26, 2030.
Crispen was sentenced in November to seven years in prison, as well as a decade of supervised released. He’s serving his time at a prison in Ohio and is scheduled to be released Oct. 25, 2029.
Sitosky pleaded guilty in December. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled. He is incarcerated at the Clinton County Correctional Facility.