Charges filed against 61-year-old Steven Carpenter will now be bound over for further proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas.
Carpenter is facing three second-degree felony counts of aggravated indecent assault without consent in connection with multiple incidents in December.
A criminal complaint filed through district judge Matthew Kirtland’s office says Franklin patrolmen Josh Wheeling and Bradley Barnhill arrived at a residence in the 500 block of Buffalo Street on Dec. 22 after receiving a report that a possible sexual assault occurred there.
Wheeling found the woman in a back bedroom, the complaint said.
The woman said she lives at the residence with her current boyfriend and that her former husband Carpenter had sexually assaulted her, the complaint said.
She said Carpenter had been staying with her and her new boyfriend for about a month, the complaint said.
The woman said that on the night of Dec. 7 she had been sleeping in her living room on an inflatable mattress when Carpenter lay down beside her and began inappropriately touching her, the complaint said.
She said the same act occurred two more times on the nights of Dec. 12 and 13, both times while she slept in the same location, the complaint said.
The woman said she had reported the assault to her therapist on Dec. 14 while at a local appointment and was advised by her therapist that she needed to contact police, the complaint said.
She said she wanted the issue to go away so she waited several days before speaking with her child on Dec. 22 who advised her that she needed to follow the instructions of her therapist and report the incident, the complaint said.
Carpenter remains in the Venango County jail on $75,000 bail.
