A Blair County judge has upheld a sexually violent predator determination against 75-year-old Barry A. Schaul of Tyrone, cementing a lifetime registration requirement for a man already serving 10 to 20 years in prison for abusing a young girl starting on her fifth birthday. Schaul appeared by video feed for the hearing before Judge Paula M. Aigner, who accepted the designation after hearing expert testimony about the risk he still poses.
According to the Altoona Mirror, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith called Brenda Manno, a board member of the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, to testify about Schaul's designation. Manno told the court she assessed Schaul on Sept. 17 and later prepared a report detailing her findings. She testified that Schaul agreed to participate in the assessment but denied the allegations against him.
Expert Testimony Points to Pedophilic Disorder
Manno testified that Schaul met the diagnostic criteria for pedophilic disorder and the statutory criteria for an SVP designation. She said he would “likely” engage in similar behavior if given the opportunity.
The defense cited Schaul's health. Chief Public Defender Julia Burke said he had suffered a series of strokes that left him impaired, wheelchair-bound and paralyzed on his left side, according to the Mirror's account. Manno testified that his medical condition would not necessarily affect the risk he posed to the community and said he continued to exhibit predatory behavior.
Abuse Began on Victim's Fifth Birthday
The Mirror's account of a forensic interview said the victim described multiple incidents between ages 5 and about 10, when Schaul was between 65 and 71. She said that on her fifth birthday he began watching pornography in his bedroom and, on multiple occasions when she was 5 to 7, asked her to lick and rub him while it played. She also told police he touched her chest and genitals.
Tyrone police opened an investigation in December 2022 after learning that a 10-year-old had been sexually abused, the Mirror reported. Schaul had been incarcerated since his Sept. 9, 2023, arrest, held in lieu of $150,000 bail.
No-Contest Plea and Sentencing
The Mirror reported that Schaul pleaded no contest to all charges, including four felony counts of indecent assault of a person under 13, and single felony counts of criminal solicitation of rape of a child, criminal solicitation of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, and corruption of minors. Aigner sentenced him on Oct. 1 to 120 to 240 months — 10 to 20 years — in a state correctional institution.
Schaul's case echoes other recent sexually violent predator designations in the region. In 2022, Blair County Judge Jackie Bernard declared Corey Andrew Hartman a sexually violent predator while Hartman was serving 5.5 to 11 years for pursuing sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2018. More recently, the Bradford Era reported that Daryl Robinson Jr. was designated a sexually violent predator following a McKean County hearing, where Manno likewise testified that Robinson met the statutory criteria for the label.
What Lifetime Registration Means
Under Pennsylvania law, a sexually violent predator must register for life, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The statute does allow a registrant to petition for an exemption after at least 25 years, but only under specific statutory conditions and if a court finds the exemption is not likely to threaten anyone's safety.
How Pennsylvania Courts Review SVP Designations
Pennsylvania appellate rulings have addressed both the evidentiary standard and procedural challenges to SVP designations. In a separate Luzerne County case, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed Tyler A. Groner’s designation on May 27, 2020, rejecting his constitutional challenge to the SORNA II procedure in light of the state Supreme Court’s Butler II ruling. The court concluded that the designation procedure uses clear and convincing evidence and that the requirements at issue were non-punitive, according to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
A separate Lebanon County case illustrates a procedural limit: on Sept. 1, 2022, the Superior Court reversed Joseph Leroy Wenzler’s designation because it was made more than three years after sentencing, ruling it untimely and a nullity. That ruling concerned the timing of Wenzler’s determination and does not establish anything about Schaul’s hearing, the court said in its decision.
