Craig S. Hartman, 68, of Falls Township, was found guilty on Thursday, Sept. 15 of sexually assaulting two 9-year-old girls. He was convicted by a Bucks County jury of one count of rape of a child and two counts each of aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault, indecent exposure, corruption of minors and unlawful contact with a minor.
Commons Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley deferred sentencing while Hartman undergoes a Sex Offender Assessment. During closing arguments on Thursday morning, Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy urged the jury to find Hartman accountable for the repeated sexual assaults of the two girls, crimes that happened in Falls and Middletown townships.
McElroy played emotional interviews from the Bucks County Child Advocacy Center where the girls, sometimes in tears, described the sexual assaults to a forensic interviewer. One victim told the interviewer she was raped by Hartman in his apartment. The sexual assaults, the girls said, happened in a swimming pool, at Hartman’s apartment and at other locations in Bucks County. The girls also described how Hartman would expose himself to them and encouraged them to expose themselves. Earlier in the trial, both girls took the witness stand and testified about the abuse they endured at the hands of the defendant.
“No child would go through that if it wasn’t the truth,” McElroy told the jury.
The investigation began in July 2020 when Falls Township police received a report that one of the victims, who was 10 at the time, had been sexually assaulted by Hartman. During the investigation, the victim told police that her best friend was also sexually assaulted by Hartman. The case was investigated by Falls Township Detective Stephen Reeves and prosecuted by McElroy.
