Published: February 14, 2008 10:31 pm      

Mineral Point man faces rash of counts

EBENSBURG — A Mineral Point man was arrested Wednesday by Ebensburg police on 10 counts of statutory rape and other charges, claiming he brought a 15-year-old North Carolina girl here and had sex with her. Police said Eric Scott Dahmen met her over the Internet.

Dahmen, 22, of the 100 block of Gillen Lane, was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bond.

He was arraigned before District Judge Charity Nileski of Cresson on charges of unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault and statutory rape offenses.

Borough police said Dahmen had sex with the girl several times between Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 at an apartment in the 200 block of South Phaney Street. The girl was placed in the care of the county Children & Youth Services.

In an unrelated case, Dahmen is charged with theft from a computer, criminal use of a communications facility and harassment on Nov. 27 and 28. West Hills police said Dahmen obtained information about a Pittsburgh woman, including her date of birth and Social Security number, while working for NCO/CallCenter, 1732 Lyter Drive in Lower Yoder Township.

At the time, the call center was handling billing for a Pittsburgh area gas company. The gas company told the center that one of its customers had reported being harassed by a gas company employee, later identified as Dahmen, police said.

The woman became scared by the text messages “because the caller knew so many details about her and she had no idea who he was,” Detective Sgt. George Musulin said. Call center workers found notepads at his desk with the names of 23 women ranging in age from 20 to 22.