A Monroe County jury on Thursday convicted a man in the locker-room attempted sex assault of an intoxicated woman that occurred while celebrating his own wedding.
Daniel J. Carney, 31, of Stroudsburg, was found guilty of felony attempted sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault without consent, plus misdemeanor simple assault and indecent assault without consent, according to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office and court records.
It occurred Aug. 30, 2019, at Shawnee Inn in Smithfield Township, following a wedding party rafting trip on the Delaware River.
Video from the inn showed Carney pull the woman — “extremely unsteady on her feet and swaying” — into the men’s locker room where the assault occurred, prosecutors and investigators said. The victim reported blacking out during the incident due to having drunk alcoholic beverages beforehand, according to court records. Carney’s fiancee entered the locker room during the assault, screaming at him, court records say. The couple were married two days later.
“Following this encounter, on the morning of his wedding on September 1, 2019, Carney sent her a text message apologizing, acknowledging his conduct and requesting that she take a Plan B contraception,” the prosecutor’s office said in a news release Friday on the conviction. “Later that day, the victim went to the hospital for a medical evaluation of the sexual assault in which numerous bruises throughout her body were documented. The Pennsylvania State Police were called to respond to the hospital.”
Carney had been free on unsecured bail and was released Friday after posting $75,000 straight bail as he awaits sentencing scheduled July 26 before Judge Stephen M. Higgins. The court ordered a pre-sentence investigation and sexually violent predator assessment, prosecutors said.
Carney could face up to 10 years in prison on each felony, according to the district attorney’s office, which plans to seek a “significant sentence of incarceration in state prison.”
Carney’s defense attorney could not be reached for comment Saturday.
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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
