By Steven Henshaw
Reading Eagle
READING, Pa. — A district judge Tuesday dismissed criminal charges against a former Berks County Prison correctional officer because the female inmate he had been accused of sexually assaulting did not attend the hearing.
State police in early April charged David J. Butryn, 62, of Centre Township with institutional sexual assault.
District Judge Thomas M. Gauby Sr., Bern Township, said that he dismissed the charge because the woman did not show up to testify.
Reading attorney James M. Polyak, who represents Butryn, said that his client is grateful for the judge’s action.
“We believe that her willingness to disobey a court-issued subpoena speak volumes about her credibility,” Polyak said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Trooper Jacob Shelak, a criminal investigator from Reading-based Troop L, began investigating early this year after state police were contacted by Lt. Jeffrey Smith of the prison staff. Smith turned over jail reports, including a copy of a statement from a former male inmate who claimed to have witnessed and interrupted the incident from an adjacent cell in a medical unit.
Shelak interviewed the woman who said she was in the medical unit for about two weeks in December 2010 and January 2011. She said one night between 11 and midnight, Butryn brought her some coffee and cookies and when he returned to retrieve the containers, he exposed himself to her at the cell door and she had sexual contact until the male inmate in the adjacent cell saw them and started making a commotion.
Warden Janine L. Quigley previously said Butryn is no longer employed at the prison and she declined further comment.
County Commissioner Kevin S. Banhardt, prison board chairman, said Tuesday that the female inmate did not make the allegations to prison officials until early this year when she was re-incarcerated.
Although more than three years had passed since the alleged incident, he said, prison officials immediately looked into the allegation because it takes matters involving possible sexual assault seriously.