Duncannon, Pa – The girls whom police officer Robert J. Pavlovich Jr. is accused of sexually assaulting were some of those who needed his protection most, authorities said.

Suspended Marysville policeman Pavlovich, 39, of the 3900 block of Gettysburg Road, Lower Allen Twp., was accused of molesting or propositioning 14 girls, ages 12 to 17, including a mentally retarded girl, a girl with bipolar disorder who was sexually abused by a neighbor, a girl with a broken arm and a girl whose mother was deployed to Iraq, according to a 30-page criminal indictment handed up Thursday by a special statewide investigative grand jury in Harrisburg.

Some of the alleged victims said they feared Pavlovich, known as “Officer Rob,” because he was a policeman, and one girl said he was “very big and scary,” records state.

“Police officers are a living symbol of law and order — with a sworn duty to protect and serve our citizens, including our children,” Attorney General Tom Corbett said. “No child should ever be victimized in this manner, and there is no room in any community for a sexual predator disguised as a police officer.”

During Pavlovich’s eight years as an officer in Perry County, seven with Marysville and less than one with Duncannon, it is alleged that he allowed girls to have marijuana in his presence, he failed to charge a girl after she asked for money to buy crack, he altered the results of Breathalyzer tests for girls at underage drinking parties in Rye Twp., he failed to arrest a drug dealer as a favor to a girl and he encouraged girls to meet him at night after curfew, according to court records.

Rhonda Hendrickson of the county’s witness/victim program has begun reaching out to the girls in the case.

“We’re here to provide as much support as we can, whenever we can,” she said. “Some of the circumstances of the case are rough, and it will be difficult.”

Joyce Lukima of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape said what the alleged victims need is a support system of people ready to listen.

“Each girl is likely to respond very differently to the trauma,” Lukima said. “They all need to know that this is something that happened to them; it’s not who they are. It doesn’t have to define their lives.”

Pavlovich was placed in the Perry County Prison in lieu of $500,000 bail by District Judge Daniel McGuire on Thursday morning on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with minors, sexual assault, indecent assault, bribery and corruption of minors.

McGuire also ordered that Pavlovich have no contact with the girls named in the indictment and that he surrender his badge to Marysville officials. He has been suspended from the Marysville force since March.

In 1995, Pavlovich was acquitted by a Lancaster County jury of indecently assaulting a teenage girl while working for the Manheim Twp. police department. He was later fired.

In 1999, he began working as a police officer in Duncannon, where investigators said three complaints about his conduct surfaced. Pavlovich was hired in 2000 by Marysville, where several parents complained to former police Chief Jake Stoss, who told them nothing could be done unless Pavlovich was recorded making comments to girls, court records state. Stoss retired in March.

In September 2006, Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate complaints about Pavlovich, records state.

“The whole thing has been the worst-kept secret in Marysville for years,” a Marysville woman said Thursday. “It makes me and lots of other people sick.”

Borough Council could address Pavlovich’s suspended status at
its next meeting, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12.