Indiana County’s District Courts will have several preliminary hearings today. One of those hearings will be for a man charged with raping a child.
Court documents say that 53-year-old Michael Ellis Stiles of Saltsburg will go before District Judge Guy Haberl today at 1:00 PM for his hearing. He is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of someone under 16 years of age, statutory sexual assault and aggravated and regular indecent assault of someone under 16. According to District Attorney Robert Manzi in a news release from when the charges were filed in mid-April, the victim reported to an adult that Stiles sexually assaulted them on several occasions. State police conducted a phone-call interview with Stiles, who admitted to portions of the victim’s claims. He was later arrested without incident and has been in Indiana County Jail since then as he was unable to post $100,000 cash bail.
Also due for a preliminary hearing today is 18-year-old Jonathan Carson Midkiff of Indiana, who faces charges of forgery, tampering with records or identification, false statements and tampering with public records. This was connected with an investigation by the District Attorney’s office, who was notified in April of an issue with a petition for Democrat Bryan Doyle, claiming ten signatures were forgeries. County detectives determined that seven of the ten people never signed it, two people were from outside the county, and one was incapacitated, so they could not sign. Doyle said that he had no knowledge of Midkiff’s involvement with the petition, that Midkiff is no longer involved with his campaign, and that even with the 10 disqualified signatures, he met the requirements to be on the ballot in Indiana County. He also pledged to take measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again. His hearing will be held at 9:30 this morning.
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