Former city police officer accused of sexual assault faces Lancaster County court (Update) | Local news

Andrew Scott Selby, a police officer in the city of Lancaster in the late 1990s, is standing trial in Lancaster District Court on charges of raping three young women while on duty and attempting to rape a fourth – in two cases while on duty.

Lancaster County Judge Jodie Richardson ordered Selby, 54, to appear in court after a two-hour preliminary hearing Friday afternoon in which the four women testified about what they say Selby did to them when they were young.

Selby will have another preliminary hearing in Manheim Township on July 9. The charges stem from an accusation by a woman who claims Selby assaulted her at a Manheim home.

A quarter of a century after the alleged crimes, each of the women identified Selby as the man who raped or attempted to rape them.

Paul Walker, one of Selby’s defense attorneys, used an expletive to refer to the charges after the hearing.

“I understand why they would extend the statute of limitations to some extent, but that is indefensible. There has to be a constitutional violation here,” he said, explaining that Selby’s due process rights had been violated.

He also said he wanted to hear more details about the allegations at the hearing.

“We want details, you know, was he wearing a uniform? Was he using a vehicle? Because all of that contradicts what we know. And we wanted to nail them,” he said, adding, for example, that Selby did not work the night shift. One of the women testified that Selby tried to rape her that evening.

Selby had many family members and supporters at the hearing, but not all of them could fit in the courtroom. Walker said they would not speak to the media. Some shouted “We love you!” after the hearing as two police officers led Shelby to a van to take him to the Lancaster County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bail in the Manheim Township case.

Richardson set bail for the charges against Lancaster at $500,000 cash.

Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Mae Lapp did not comment after the hearing, but in arguing that the charges should go to trial, she said Selby abused his position of trust during his time as a police officer.

Statement of the prosecutors

None of the four women said Selby physically attacked them, but two said they tried to push him away. One woman said she began having sex with Selby when she was 11 years old.

Pennsylvania law sets out a number of scenarios that govern sexual activity with minors. Children under the age of 13 cannot legally consent to sexual activity in any situation, and children between the ages of 13 and 15 cannot consent to sex with someone four or more years older. Children age 16 can consent as long as the other person does not have authority over them.

At the time of the alleged assaults, one of the other women was just 16 years old, another was 12 or 13 years old, and the fourth was about 15 years old.

The first woman to testify said she was raped by someone else sometime shortly after Christmas 1997 while she was visiting her mother and stepfather in Lancaster from Minnesota, where she lived with her father.

She said it happened at a party, but only the perpetrator and a relative of his were in the house. She told her mother what happened and they reported the rape to the police and had an examination carried out at Lancaster General Hospital to collect evidence, what is commonly known as a “rape kit”.

She said her rape case was assigned to Selby.

After her release, she testified that he visited her at her mother’s house.

“I was curled up in the fetal position on my living room sofa,” she said. Selby patted her foot and told her they were going to get the man who had raped her.

She testified that Selby had organized an outing with her and her mother.

She said her mother and stepfather, who used heroin, “couldn’t handle emotions and grief well” and her mother told her it would be good for her to get out of the house.

The three went to an all-ages dance party and after a while her mother said she had to leave and Selby offered to take her daughter home. Her mother left and Selby, instead of taking her straight home, asked the girl if she wanted to smoke marijuana and she said yes.

He took her to his apartment, where she smoked and they both drank, she said.

“He started kissing me and I remember being very confused,” she said. She said she viewed him as a big brother or uncle who would help catch the rapist.

“I froze. My reaction was that I was not in my body,” she said.

She said Selby offered her a massage.

“I’m still very disoriented. I don’t know what to do. I just keep going,” she said, admitting she was high.

She said she took off her shirt and lay down on his bed for the massage “and he started taking off my pants. … I felt trapped. I felt frozen. I thought: You have to get through this.”

She said she was terrified and did not want to fight. She tried to defend herself against the man who had raped her about a week earlier and was brutally beaten.

“I had just done that and got beaten up.”

She testified that she heard what she thought was the wrapper of a condom and then felt him enter her from behind.

“I remember crying,” she said, still physically recovering from the rape she had experienced a week earlier.

“I didn’t feel like I had the power to tell him to stop. I tried fight and flight, but it didn’t work very well. You freeze. You give up. You grit your teeth and endure it… and besides, this is a police officer,” she said.

After he was done, she said, Selby took her home and she didn’t tell her parents what happened and returned to Minnesota. Eventually – she didn’t say when – she told therapists and her husband.

Last March, she contacted Lancaster Police and told them what had happened. Police then launched a new investigation into Selby, which led to the four charges.

While the woman spent about 40 minutes in the dock, the statements of the other three defendants were much shorter.

One of them testified that she met Selby when she was about 15 years old. She said he told her and her friends to get off the streets and that their conversations were flirtatious.

She remembered that she had once arranged to meet two friends and Selby at his house for a drink.

She said they were just hanging out, drinking and some smoking. “At some point it became sexual.”

She told Selby no, he didn’t have a condom, whereupon “he picked me up” and carried her upstairs to a bedroom.

Selby, she said, dumped out her sandwich bag full of peach rings and used it as a condom. She said she tried to push him away, but he was “huge” compared to her petite frame.

At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors must present sufficient evidence that a crime has been committed and the defendant is likely responsible for it, so the case should be tried in district court by a jury or judge.

Selby was living in Pequea Township when he was arrested on May 17.

The YWCA Lancaster operates a 24/7 Sexual Assault Hotline at 717-392-7273. It connects callers to free, confidential counseling and therapy services for community members experiencing sexual abuse, harassment or assault.