Two Tamaqua men — one accused of sex crimes with a minor boy, and one accused of sex crimes with a minor girl — are slated for trial in Schuylkill County, after jury selection completes next week.

Murphy case

Brad Daniel Murphy, 37, is one of four men accused of sex crimes involving a 13-year-old boy from Tamaqua. The defendants contacted the victim through a cellphone dating app called Grindr.

In October 2019, two of the men entered guilty pleas. Former area music educator Dale Schimpf, 71, of Frackville, entered guilty pleas to statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors and indecent exposure, and was sentenced to three to six years in state prison. Matthew Delgado, 29, Tamaqua, entered a guilty plea to corruption of minors — sexual acts, and was sentenced to nine to 23 months in Schuylkill County Prison.

In July 2019, Charles Raymond Joy, 59, Port Carbon, entered a guilty plea to indecent exposure and indecent assault charges and was sentenced to three to 23 months in county prison. All three men must submit DNA samples and will have Megan’s Law registration requirements.

Murphy is represented by attorney Christine Holman, who this week filed a motion seeking to prevent the commonwealth from using certain evidence at trial.

According to Holman’s motion, GPS location services for the Grindr app placed the account, which was communicating with the victim at the residence of Murphy and his parents, with the account owner identified as “Bear.” Holman contends that there is no evidence that Murphy was the person who used the account. She also argues that accounts can be falsified, and that the GPS locations as determined by Grindr may not be accurate.

She also objects to the use of a single photograph — Murphy in a county prison uniform — for identification purposes by the victim. Police showed the photograph to the victim, who identified Murphy as his assailant. Holman contends that Murphy’s photograph should have been presented to the victim in an array of photographs.

McFarland case

In the second Tamaqua case, jury deliberations ended in a mistrial in August. Keith McFarland, 40, Palmerton, was living in Tamaqua when he was arrested by local police in October 2018.

McFarland was charged with rape of a child, indecent assault, indecent exposure and corruption of minors in a case involving an 8-year-old girl. The jury could not reach a verdict on any of the charges.

According to testimony, the child reported the alleged sexual contact to a relative, who took the child to the Child Advocacy Center. The girl, then 8, had begun to live with her grandmother in Bath in January 2018 and made the disclosure in October 2018, according to Mannix’s testimony.

The child’s mother testified that she and her three children lived with McFarland in Tamaqua between late 2013 and fall 2015, moving out before the start of the school year. The mother had started a new relationship with McFarland’s next-door neighbor and the two then moved to West Hazleton, staying together for about five months. She said she learned of the reported incident involving one of her daughters when the relative called her about it in October 2018.