PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage girl he met at Philadelphia’s Police Athletic League (PAL) in 2022 has been sentenced but now wants to withdraw his plea.
Marquis Graham, 28, became irate when Judge Chesley Lightsey sentenced him Monday to four to eight years in prison after pleading guilty in December to unlawful contact with a minor and statutory sexual assault.
Graham had been a volunteer at the PAL center in Strawberry Mansion when he saw the girl walking from the center to her work one rainy night in March 2022 and offered her a ride.
Prosecutors say he groped her during the ride and, when they arrived at her work, he forced her into a sexual act.
Once she walked inside work, she threw up. The next day, she told her school counselor what happened, launching the investigation.
At his sentencing, Graham vacillated between accepting responsibility and apologizing to the victim for all the pain she’s gone through, to saying he didn’t do what he is accused of and isn’t a pedophile, rapist or sex offender. He also claimed everything the prosecutor said was “full of lies.”
Graham then told the judge he wanted to take back his plea, saying he was promised only two to four years in prison and that he’s been attacked by other inmates.
The judge said he would have to appeal to a higher court.