On 01 October 2017 Officers Gehron and Lasanta met with the victim of an indecent assault. The victim is a 15 year old female. The victim told Officers that she had been in the area of N. Queen St. and E. Walnut St. when she came into contact with a male who was unknown to her. The suspect told the victim that he knew a quicker way to walk home. The suspect put his arm around the victim and groped her by grabbing her buttocks with his hand.

The victim and suspect walked east toward the 300 blk. New Holland Ave. The suspect had asked the victim how old she was and she told him that she was 15 years old. The suspect and victim were in an alley to the rear of homes on the block. The suspect grabbed the victim with one arm. With the other hand he grabbed her buttocks and then tried to put his hand up her skirt.  The victim managed to break free from the suspect and leave the scene. As she was leaving the victim looked back and saw that the suspect had attempted to expose his genitals to her. 

The victim told the Officers that the incident had occurred on 01 Oct 2017 between 1510 - 1520 hrs. The victim provided a description of the suspect as well as the route that they had traveled. Officers consulted with Detectives from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). Det. Heather Halstead checked with the Lancaster Safety Coalition and provided the route and description. LSC was able to locate images of the suspect and victim. 

Sgt. Gerace saw the images of the suspect and victim and recognized the suspect as Francis A. Dean M/28, from a recent, unrelated contact. The victim was able to identify Dean as the person that had assaulted her on 01 October 2017. 

As a result of this incident Det. Halstead filed a criminal complaint against Dean, charging him with (1) Count Unlawful Contact With a Minor (F1), 1 Count Corruption of Minors (F3), Criminal Attempt- Indecent Exposure (M1) and 2 Counts Indecent Assault (persons less than 16 y.o.a.) (M2). Dean has already been committed to LCP on a previous, unrelated incident and has not yet been arraigned on this criminal complaint. Bail information on this case was not available as of the time of this release. 

All persons accused of a crime are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.