The Commonwealth's Attorney General announced Thursday sexual abuse charges against four men across Pennsylvania.
The one common thread in the cases of abuse is that the men charged and the victims are all members of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Josh Shapiro named the men at a news conference, including a Butler County man, Eric Eleam.
The attorney general says a grand jury heard testimony from his daughter about the sexual abuse she suffered, “Including being forced to perform oral sex,” said Shapiro. “She told the grand jury about her father’s practice of using sexual molestation as discipline in the house where she was growing up.”
Eleam is charged with rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
But the state will not get to put him on trial. When officers tried to arrest Eleam, he took his own life.
Jesse Hill, formerly of Berks Count and now living in Georgia, Jose Serrano of Lancaster County and Robert Ostrander, formerly of Cambria County, now loving in New Work also face criminal charges of sexual abuse.
In total, 19 minors were allegedly exploited and sexually abused.
"These cases are disturbing, the allegations hard to imagine, and all share one common tie. The 19 victims and the four men who are being charged with sexually violating them are all members of Jehovah's Witnesses. These children deserved to be protected and grow up in peace, not to be preyed upon," said Shapiro.