A former police chief of the Tyrone Area School District is once again in trouble with the law.
Thirty-nine-year-old Mark Cummins Frailey of Spruce Creek was arrested and arraigned Monday on charges that he violated a protection-from-abuse order which stemmed from his first arrest in November.
According to Tpr. Scott Plank of the Huntingdon barracks of the state police, Frailey violated the order at about 3 p.m. on Dec. 31 when he phoned the 17-year-old girl, who was the victim during last year’s sexual misconduct case.
According to police, Frailey turned himself in without incident.
He was arraigned before District Magistrate Daniel Davis and released on $25,000 unsecured bail.
According to Magistrate Davis, the PFA was issued by Huntingdon County Judge Stewart Kurtz in September at the request of the victim’s mother. Davis said the PFA charges are civil charges and no preliminary hearing is scheduled for this type of case. He said Judge Kurtz will schedule a hearing on the matter.
The initial investigation opened in August when police learned Frailey may have had inappropriate sexual contact with a 16-year-old female student he once coached in softball.
The affidavit of probable cause filed by the state police states the investigation into Frailey’s alleged activities began on June 17 when the victim and her mother were interviewed by Cpl. Darron H. Stratton at the Hollidaysburg barracks.
During the interview, police said the victim’s mother advised that Frailey, while employed as a school police officer, also supervised a club known as the Police Explorers and coached a softball team.
She told police Frailey began to drive her daughter home after the different school activities and also began calling their residence.
She told police that she had asked Frailey to stop these actions, but Frailey continued to do so.
She also told police, according to the affidavit, that Frailey once picked her daughter up at 5:30 a.m. on a school day for a “school-related breakfast.”
She later learned there was no such breakfast held in the district.
She said on Jan. 16, her daughter cell phone rang, and when she answered it, she discovered Frailey was the caller.
According to the affidavit, the juvenile girl admitted that in mid to late May, Frailey “French kissed” her at a spot located along state Route 453 just past Grier School.
She also said she met him there again on June 12 and they again French kissed. She also said they touched each other inappropriately.
On June 18, Stratton interviewed Frailey, who first denied the allegations, but later said the only thing that happened between him and the victim occurred with her consent after she turned 16 years old.
After this interview, Stratton contacted the victim’s mother who said her daughter admitted that she had sexual intercourse with Frailey one week prior to their conversation.
On June 25, the victim and her mother met with Stratton and Brown at the Family Services office in Altoona and the victim advised that she did have ### with Frailey on three separate occasions.
She said these incidents all occurred at his residence in his bedroom. The mother and daughter also noted that Frailey used e-mail and instant message to contact the girl from both the school computer and his personal computer at home.
According to the affidavit, Frailey admitted his sexual encounter by stating to a Tyrone resident that he made a mistake and had sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl and that he wasn’t worried because police can only arrest him for corruption of minors because he waited for the girl to turn 16 years of age. Frailey also told the man that he stored all his personal files and records in his garage.
On Aug. 11, Brown served a search warrant on the computer system of the Tyrone Area School District and recovered a “box” of e-mails directed from Frailey to the girl. Brown also said he served a second warrant on a garage at a property located on West 17th Street in Tyrone and found newspaper clippings, two VCR tapes, a letter from an attorney, an official police book and a folder titled “Personal.”
Seven days later, Brown, with permission from the victim’s mother, analyzed the family’s personal computer. There, two instant messages screen names were found – mcf646col and mcfrailey.
The last search warrant was served in October. At Frailey’s home, a 2003 date book was found, eight floppy disks, a certificate issued to the victim, a birthday card, a printed e-mail message, four pages of written notes, seven compact discs an a photo display of the victim.
Frailey had bail set at $25,000 in this case and was released. A preliminary hearing scheduled for late December was continued at the request of the defendant, who is represented by Altoona attorney Theodore Krol. The hearing is now scheduled for Jan. 28.
