A Lehighton man was sentenced on Thursday to a minimum of 10 years in prison and up to 20 years, for repeatedly raping a young girl of a long period of time.

Gregory Wagner, 31, was sentenced per a plea agreement with the state’s Attorney General’s office to the state prison term. Presiding Judge Joseph J. Matika said he would have imposed a longer term but was restrained from doing so by the plea bargain.

Wagner previously entered a guilty plea to one count each of rape of a child, felony 1, and sexual exploitation of children, felony 2. The charges were filed by the office of the Attorney General, who took over the case because Wagner’s co-defendant in the case, Brent Getz, 30, of Lehighton, is the former police chief of Weissport.

Because of Getz’s affiliation with the police, then county District Attorney Jean A. Engler, recused herself from the prosecution and asked the Attorney General office to take over. Deputy Attorney General Rebecca Anne Elo took over prosecuting the two cases.

Part of Wagner’s plea agreement was that he would testify against Getz at his trial. Wagner fulfilled that obligation and testified at Getz’s trial in March. Getz was found guilty of all charges filed against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7 at 9 a.m. before Matika. After the verdict was read Matika revoked Getz’s bail and remanded him to the county prison, where he is currently an inmate.

The commonwealth accused Wagner of raping the girl hundreds of times. Getz, Wagner’s friend, is also accused of having sex with the girl.

Wagner told the court he realizes the harm that he has done to the girl.

He told the court, “I can only ask for forgiveness.” He added, “I will do everything I can to help her family and her.”

Defense attorney Michael Gough said when a second set of charges were filed in the case, his client never denied his involvement. He said Wagner did deny the charges when an initial set of charges were filed.

Victim’s statement

Elo read a written statement submitted by the victim in which she expressed how the incidents had affected her life and will continue to affect her.

She said Wagner started abusing her when she was 4 and it continued until she was 12. She told the court, “I can’t understand why a person will do this to another person.”

She said she has constant nightmares. She also said she was not ready to forgive Wagner but hoped he gets the help he needs.

Matika said he understood the reason for the plea deal the AG made with Wagner. He said Wagner’s testimony against his co-defendant went a long way in Getz being convicted. He also said the agreement was based on Wagner’s cooperation during the investigation.

Matika told Wagner he will serve out his sentence and eventually be paroled and go on with his life. He said the victim “will have to live with this the rest of her life.”

Matika said if not for the plea deal, which he accepted when Wagner entered his plea, he would have imposed a much longer prison term.

The prison term will be followed by three years of state probation. Wagner was also ordered to submit to a sexual offenders evaluation, get both mental health and drug and alcohol evaluations, have no contact with the victim or her family, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18, render 100 hours of community service when paroled, must comply with all registration provisions of Megan’s Law, make restitution of $1,189.65 to the Victim’s Compensation Commission, register for life as a sexual offender, pay court costs of over $1,000 and was determined to be a violent sexual offender.

Wagner, who has been in prison since his arrest in March 2019, was given credit for 1,130 days already served.

Case history

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by the AG’s office, the investigation began in May 2012 after ChildLine, Children and Youth Services, received a complaint that an 11-year-old child reported that when she was left alone with Wagner, he touched her inappropriately, and the child was afraid.

She also reported years later that she had been repeatedly raped by Wagner and Getz several times a week, starting when she was 4. At the time of the rapes, Getz and Wagner would both have been teenagers.

Children and Youth Services notified Franklin Township police, who made arrangements for the child to be interviewed by the Children’s Advocacy Center in Scranton.

On May 16, 2012, the victim was interviewed on video by a forensic interviewer. She said that Wagner, on multiple occasions, touched her inappropriately. She also said that he offered her $5 to have sex with him, which she declined, and that he had also shown her pornography on his laptop.

In 2015, the case was reassigned and charges against Wagner were submitted to the district court, but they were unable to be filed due to the charges being invalid. Valid charges were not resubmitted.

In August 2018, a Franklin Township police officer revisited the case and interviewed the victim.

He then submitted the charges to the district attorney’s office, which approved them. The case was then transferred to the AG office.