A Palmerton man has been charged with the alleged sexual assault of a minor.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by trooper Kevin Kreidler of the Pennsylvania State Police, Fern Ridge barracks in the case against Brian Gombert:

On Oct. 4, a 15-year-old girl came to the Fern Ridge station with her mother and reported that she had been sexually assaulted at the West End Fairgrounds.

The victim said that on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3, she and her friends were at the harvest festival, hanging around a bounce house that was being operated by Gombert, 41, who is an uncle of one of her friends.

While the victim was alone near the bounce house with Gombert, she said he made several sexual comments to her, touched her inappropriately and showed her photographs on his cellphone.

The victim said Gombert sexually assaulted her multiple times over that weekend. She said Gombert also attempted to get her to have sex with him inside of his car, which she described as a silver Mustang.

She said that Gombert would wait until her friends were not around and then approached her while she was lying in/hanging around the bounce house.

The victim’s mother showed police screenshots of conversations with Gombert and her daughter from Facebook messenger, and the photographs of the victim’s bruises.

In the Facebook messenger chats between Gombert and the victim, Gombert apologized. The victim tells Gombert that her friend knows about Gombert slapping her buttocks but nothing else, and Gombert tells the victim, “Don’t say anything about the other stuff.”

Gombert also said she should not have said anything because he does not want to get in trouble or go to jail.

He told her not to tell her mother. “She won’t know if you don’t say anything and it will never happen again ever ... I promise. I’ll stop talking to you and everything if that’s what you want.”

On Oct. 4, Kreidler left a message for Gombert, who returned the call later that day, leaving a voicemail. He said, “All I did was crack the girl on the (behind) because she was rubbing against me. I didn’t know how old she was. Nothing else happened. If she told you anything else happened, she lied. She’s a known liar. ”

Gombert set up an appointment with police for Oct. 9, but Gombert failed to appear for the interview and left him a voice message on Oct. 8 stating that he and everyone in his household tested positive for COVID-19.

Kreidler interviewed the victim’s 13-year-old friend, who said that while she and the victim were in the area of the bounce house, Gombert would not stop staring at the victim, and that she saw Gombert put his arms around the victim multiple times and saw them talking but does not know what they were talking about.

She said that she did hear Gombert call the victim “baby girl” at one point, and that on Oct. 2, she saw Gombert slap the victim’s buttocks so hard that she could also hear it.

Gombert faces charges of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age; aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age; simple assault; corruption of minors; unlawful contact with minor; and disseminate explicit sexual materials to a minor.

He is currently incarcerated in the Monroe County Prison in lieu of $100,000 monetary bail, and scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Friday before District Judge Kristina Anzini of Stroudsburg.