NE Man Jailed for Sexual Assault of Two Minors

A New Enterprise man has been jailed after police charged him with multiple counts of sexually abusing and threatening two minors over a 17-year span.

Stephen John Beegle, 45, faces more than 100 felony charges of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and indecent assault after the victim's mother contacted state police and reported that Beegle had been sexually assaulting her now 21-year-old daughter since she was 4.

According to police, the victim's mother said her son approached her on April 24 and told her that Beegle had been sexually assaulting the woman for many years. When the mother asked her daughter about the allegations, she confirmed it.

According to police, the son claimed Beegle raped him approximately 10 times when he was between the ages of 7 and 9. He told police the assaults occurred at a home along Quaker Valley Road in East Saint Clair Township. He said Beegle threatened to kill him if he told anyone.

When police interviewed the female victim, she told them that Beegle began raping her when she was 4 years old and continued until the morning of April 23 this year.

The victim told police that beginning at age 4, Beegle would wake her up around midnight and have her come to his bedroom to perform oral sex on her. She told police that as time went on, Beegle began having vaginal sex with her. She said that both forms of assault continued several times a week until this April. The victim said she never told anyone of the abuse because Beegle threatened to "kill her and her family and then himself" if she did.

The victim told police that on April 23 of this year, she was at home with Beegle and her 3-year-old daughter when Beegle told her to go into his bedroom. Once in his bedroom Beegle allegedly pulled off the victim's clothes and raped her. The victim then went to UPMC Bedford Memorial for a sexual assault exam.

Police said the sexual assaults occurred at four different locations throughout the years, all in Bedford County, the last being at his home in New Enterprise.

Beegle was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Tonya Osman, Schellsburg, and committed to the Bedford County Jail on $750,000 cash bail.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, in front of Osman.