A Gouldsboro, Wayne County, man, formerly of Albrightsville, is facing a state prison term when sentenced after pleading guilty on Tuesday in Carbon County court to a sexual assault count.

Jose Rodriguez, 60, pleaded to one count of statutory sexual assault, a felony 1, before Judge Steven R. Serfass. Rodriguez was charged in June 2021 with sexually assaulting a girl at a residence in Penn Forest Township. Serfass told Rodriquez, under state sentencing guidelines, he faces a minimum prison term of between 24 to 36 months up to a maximum of 240 months.

State police at Fern Ridge filed the charges after receiving information on June 3 by the Jim Thorpe Area School District and spoke with a teacher who said that she and several other teachers had received an email from the victim’s 17-year-old brother with information about Rodriguez, and the victim, who is 17.

The teacher said there was an attachment to the email that contained a video screenshot of the victim’s school email account, and the email thread between the victim and Rodriguez suggested that the victim and Rodriguez were in an inappropriate relationship.

Police interviewed Rodriguez, who denied having a sexual relationship with the victim, and said that the emails were being fabricated by the victim’s brother who has access to his email account and the victim’s email account.

Rodriguez allowed police to look at the email account on his iPhone 8, and there were several emails with the victim suggesting a sexual relationship. Rodriguez surrendered his iPhone 8 to police for a digital download.

Police interviewed the victim, who denied that she was having a sexual relationship with Rodriguez, and also said that she likes living with him and his girlfriend, and that she did not want to leave.

The victim’s brother told police he is able to access the victim’s school MacBook and email account because their passwords are nearly identical, but he denied having access to Rodriguez’s email account. The victim’s brother said that he looked at the victim’s email before sending the screenshot video to his teachers because he had suspicions that something was going on between the victim and Rodriguez. He said that the victim told him almost two years ago that Rodriguez had touched her, but that no one he told believed him and the victim denied what she had told him.

Police requested a copy of emails between Rodriguez and the victim from the school district.

Police said several emails between Rodriguez and the victim suggest that they are in a sexual relationship as they talk in the emails about having various forms of sex. The victim emailed nude photographs of herself.

Troopers interviewed the victim at her residence. She said that she is in a sexual relationship with Rodriguez, and that it began in June 2019 when she and her siblings were sent to his residence for foster care. She said that she was initially resistant to his request for sexual contact, but that he persisted and she felt that she had to do what he wanted.

The victim said that she and Rodriguez have had sex more than 20 times, at their residence either in her bedroom or on the couch in the living room while her siblings were sleeping and Rodriguez’s girlfriend was working nights. She said that they have not had sexual contact since Rodriguez’s girlfriend stopped working in March, and that she and Rodriguez only communicated through her school email account because she and her siblings are not allowed to have cellphones so they cannot contact their biological parents.

In exchange for the plea the district attorney’s office dropped counts of indecent sexual intercourse - forcible compulsion; aggravated indecent assault - forcible compulsion; rape - forcible compulsion; indecent assault - forcible compulsion; indecent exposure; corruption of minors; and photograph/film/depict on computer sex act - knowingly or permitting child.

Serfass deferred sentencing because the charge falls under the provisions of Megan’s Law.

Rodriguez will be evaluated by the state’s sexual offenders assessment board to determine if he is a sexual violent predator. Serfass also ordered the adult probation to prepare a presentence investigation report.