By RODNEY L. SHERMAN
Clarion News editor
A 25-year-old Knox man will stand trial for allegedly having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl in August at the Knox Ambulance Station.
Seth Christopher Cataldo is charged with felony counts of statutory sexual assault on a person 11 or more years younger than the defendant and aggravated indecent assault on a person younger than 16, and misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors and indecent assault on a person younger than 16 in connection with the Aug. 18 incident.
Cataldo was originally charged with two counts of corruption of minors, but at the start of his preliminary hearing Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Drew Welsh withdrew the second count of corruption of minors, saying the second charge was a clerical error.
The girl, a Venango County resident, testified she first met Cataldo at the ambulance station where she was performing community service work ordered by a Venango County district judge following an underage drinking incident.
Cataldo was employed as a paramedic by the ambulance service. He has been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the charges against him.
The girl said she had completed her court-ordered community service hours by cleaning equipment and the ambulances at the station. She testified she stayed on as a volunteer at the station after her community service hours at the request of three ambulance company officials, one of whom was Cataldo.
There were no questions or statements as to what led to the sexual encounter. The girl testified she and Cataldo had sexual intercourse on a bed in the ambulance station “lounge.”
The girl said Cataldo had suggested she come to the station that evening to help get the ambulances ready for a parade the next day. The girl said her parents dropped her off at that station around 4:30 p.m. and returned to pick her up around 7 p.m. just as they had done while she was performing her community service and volunteer work.
The girl testified she had told Cataldo she was 14 years old when she started her community service hours at the ambulance station, a “few days” before they had sexual intercourse and in the days after they had sexual intercourse.
Message exchanges
The dates the messages were exchanged were unclear. Cataldo’s attorney, Ralph L.S. Montana, did not object to the messages being introduced but asked Welsh to provide the dates of messages at a later time.
Montana and Welsh agreed the messages were exchanged after the sexual encounter.
“We need to talk, like, ASAP,” the girl told Cataldo.
“What? You’re making me nervous,” responded Cataldo.
The girl said she did not ask Cataldo to get together again but “he did.”
“Did that happen?” asked Montana.
“No,” said the girl.
“Mine,” said the girl. “He kept asking to meet and I kept making up lies not to go.”
The girl did admit she asked Cataldo about continuing a relationship in the days after the sexual encounter.
At some point after the sexual encounter, the girl said she contacted Cataldo via messenger to talk about “getting a pregnancy test.”
The girl said she never took the pregnancy test and was not pregnant now.
The message exchange included the girl telling Cataldo she would kill herself if she was pregnant. There were several exchanges in which the girl seemed to ask Cataldo if the relationship could continue.
“I never said I don’t want you,” Cataldo allegedly wrote. “I just said how can we date low key when you’re 14 and I’m 25?”
Cataldo allegedly wrote he was not ready to enter into a long-term relationship after just getting a divorce after a four-year marriage.
Also under cross-examination, Montana asked the girl if Cataldo had forced her to have sex or if she had told him no or to stop. The girl said “no.”
The girl also testified she had only one sexual encounter with Cataldo.
Neither Welsh nor Montana offered any closing statements or motions and Quinn ordered Cataldo to stand trial on all charges.