Claysburg Man Arraigned on Christmas for Felony Charges Against Teen

After being charged with stalking and raping a teenage girl on Christmas Eve, a Claysburg man is behind bars.

Keith Robert Morse, 32, was arraigned Christmas Day before Magisterial District Judge Benjamin F. Jones on felony charges of rape, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault – forcible compulsion, strangulation, aggravated indecent assault without consent, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16 years of age, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse forcible compulsion and misdemeanor charges of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age, indecent assault forcible compulsion, indecent assault without consent, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.

Morse was sent to the Blair County Prison after failing to post the $150,000 bail.

Greenfield Township police were called to an apartment on the 700 block of Bedford Street in Claysburg to make contact with a 15-year-old girl who was reported as a runaway from Freedom Township, according to the affidavit.

Police were informed by a man on scene that the girl had been raped and required assistance.

Once in the police car, the victim told police the man smoking outside was Morse, and told the officer that he had raped her.

Police reported that Morse was taken into custody and an ambulance was called for the victim.

Morse told police that the victim showed up at his house to finish decorating the Christmas tree and hang out.

He admitted the two had sexual intercourse and claimed the victim said she was in her 20s, the report said.

The victim told the police at the hospital that she had been dropped off at the apartment complex to go to a relative’s residence.

Morse grabbed the victim when she was walking toward the apartment and forced her into his apartment, where he pushed her to the floor in the bathroom and raped her.

The victim told him to stop, but he covered her mouth and started to choke her, she said.

She ran to her relative’s apartment while he went to his bedroom to change, she told the police.

The victim said she knew Morse and felt as if he was stalking her.

Morse told police he did not talk to the victim directly, only through friends.