From staff reports
A Franklin man is facing charges for raping a 14-year-old girl near Polk and in Irwin Township.
Franklin state police said in a criminal complaint that the girl told a forensic interviewer about an incident last March when Rex Montgomery, 19, who had previously dated her older sister, asked the girl to go swimming with him in Little Sandy Creek near Polk.
At the swimming hole, the girl said, Montgomery forced her up against a tree, touched her inappropriately with his hands and raped her, the complaint said. She was 13 at the time and Montgomery was 17, according to the complaint.
She told the forensic interviewer that in March 2021 she didn’t know what rape was and didn’t understand that what had happened to her was a crime, according to the complaint.
Sometime later, Montgomery, who was now 18, contacted the girl on Snapchat to wish her happy birthday and he asked her if they could “just forget about things and be friends,” and she said yes, the complaint said.
Several months later in the summer of 2021, the girl was staying at a friend’s house overnight near Clintonville and needed a ride home the next day, the complaint said.
Montgomery had been contacting the girl while she was at her friend’s house and he offered to give her a ride home and buy her food on the way, the complaint said.
When Montgomery picked her up in his pickup truck, instead of taking her home he “didn’t go the right way” and turned back “a road where no one lives” that was within walking distance of the friend’s house in Irwin Township, the complaint said.
Afterward, while she was “(crying) her eyes out”, Montgomery started the truck and then she saw her two friends, both 14-year-old girls, walking down the road so she left the pickup truck, went to her friends and Montgomery left in his truck, the complaint said.
On both occasions the girl said she told Montgomery to stop and “no” but he didn’t listen, the complaint said.
The girl told Children and Youth Services what happened and they told her father, the complaint said.
When police interviewed Montgomery, he at first denied the allegations, but he eventually admitted to having sex with the girl on both occasions, the complaint said.
The complaint notes that a juvenile allegation was filed against Montgomery in regard to the rape allegation in March 2021.
Montgomery has been charged as an adult in regard to the rape allegation in summer 2021. He is facing felony counts in that incident of rape forcible compulsion, statutory sexual assault 4-8 years older, corruption of minors-defendant age 18 or above and unlawful contact with a minor-sexual offenses, as well as a misdemeanor count of indecent assault forcible compulsion.
He was arraigned Thursday, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 27 in Venango County Central Court.
