(TNS)

Jan. 10--Two men are not sexually violent predators but are sex offenders and subject to Megan's law sanctions, a Schuylkill County judge decided Friday.

In separate cases, Judge Charles M. Miller ruled Michael C. Gallagher, 34, of Jim Thorpe, and Charles J. Yoder Sr., 63, of Pine Grove, are not sexually violent predators, a ruling in line with the determinations by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

However, he imposed Megan's Law sanctions on Gallagher for 15 years and Yoder for the rest of his life after he leaves prison.

Senior Deputy Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Lehman said the sanctions against Yoder are lifetime ones because he entered a plea to two distinct offenses.

Yoder pleaded no contest on Sept. 24, 2014, to corruption of minors, indecent assault and indecent exposure. Prosecutors withdrew three additional counts of indecent assault and two of unlawful contact.

At the time of Yoder's plea, Miller sentenced him to serve four to 23 months in prison, pay costs and $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account, and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.

State police at Schuylkill Haven alleged Yoder indecently assaulted a 10-year-old child several times between June 1, 2012, and Sept. 1, 2012.

Gallagher pleaded no contest on Sept. 24, 2014, to one count each of indecent assault and indecent exposure, with prosecutors withdrawing eight additional counts of indecent assault, two of corruption of minors and one of indecent exposure.

At the time of Gallagher's plea, Miller sentenced him to spend three years on probation, pay costs and $100 in CJEA payments, and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.

Schuylkill County detectives alleged Gallagher exposed himself on May 1, 2009, and committed the assault on Oct. 1, 2010.

By pleading no contest, Gallagher and Yoder each did not admit committing the crimes, but offered no defense to them, admitted prosecutors could produce sufficient evidence to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and agreed to be sentenced as if he had pleaded or been found guilty.

The Megan's Law sanctions to which Yoder will be subject will include requiring him to report his address, education status and employment, along with any change in any of them, to state police, to update them regularly and to notify law enforcement authorities in any state to which he might move of the same information. Any failure to comply with the sanctions is a separate criminal offense.

"You must strictly abide by all of the mandates," Miller warned Gallagher.

Megan's Law was enacted in Pennsylvania, numerous other states and at the federal level after the July 29, 1994, murder of Megan Nicole Kanka, 7, in Hamilton Township, N.J. Jesse Timmendequas, Kanka's killer, was one of her neighbors and a twice-convicted sex offender; his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after New Jersey enacted legislation to abolish the death penalty in that state.

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