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PITTSTON — A city man who is facing trial on charges he sexually assaulted three boys was arrested Friday on allegations he lured a fourth child into his truck last month while free on bail.
Police say Austin Quick, 19, approached the boy on Broad Street on Feb. 23 or 24, based on what the 10-year-old told officers.
Quick was arraigned by District Judge Alexandra Kokura Kravitz in Pittston on a single count of luring a child into a motor vehicle. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility without bail as Kokura Kravitz considered him a flight risk and a threat to society.
According to a criminal complaint:
A Pittston Area Middle School resource officer contacted city police on Feb. 26 to report that the boy told a staff member he had come into contact with Quick, who the youth only knew by his first name. The boy said Quick told him that he had been arrested for molesting another boy, but that the charges were false and then asked the boy to go for a ride in his truck.
City police interviewed the boy later that day. The youth told them Quick approached him outside his home between breakfast and dinnertime on either Feb. 23 or Feb. 24.
The boy said Quick asked him if he could “get a hold of” a teenage girl who lives in the same building. When the boy said she wasn’t home, Quick asked him to go for a ride.
The boy said he declined, and that Quick asked again, saying “please.” The boy refused and went back into the building.
Inside, he told a female what happened and she told the boy not to hang out with Quick “because he’s a rapist.”
That witness told police the boy came to her door, asked her if she wanted to go for a ride with Quick and she said no.
She told officers she then saw the 10-year-old go outside and get into Quick’s truck, and that they then drove away. She said she saw the truck return about an hour later, and the boy got out.
A second witness told police she saw Quick and the boy sitting together in the truck.
Previous arrest
Avoca police arrested Quick in March 2018 after investigating reports he sexually assaulted three boys.
Court records say one of the boys knew Quick through Boy Scouts, while two others said they met Quick through a mutual friend playing video games.
Two boys told police and a forensic interviewer at the Luzerne County Child Advocacy Center that they rode bikes with Quick on dirt tracks and coal pits in Avoca. During the rides, Quick molested one boy and asked the other to get involved, court records say.
One of the boys said Quick assaulted him at least three times in the woods or inside a residence on Main Street, Avoca.
The third boy claimed Quick asked to perform oral sex on him. When the boy refused, he claimed Quick tickled him roughly until he relented, court records say.
Quick told police he felt sick and cried after the incidents because he knew it was wrong, according to court records.
Quick is facing multiple sexual assault related charges and had been free after posting $150,000 total bail on March 30, 2018.
His trial, which has been continued several times, is scheduled for May 13 before Judge Joseph Sklarosky Jr.