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Brodheadsville Couple Faces Court in Tot’s Rape Case

Pediatrician testifies toddler showed signs of abuse;
trooper says man admitted to assault.

By Chris Parker
Originally published in The Morning Call, October 20, 2001

After listening to a pediatrician describe a toddler’s injuries resulting from an alleged sexual assault, District Justice Debbie York on Friday sent charges against a Brodheadsville couple to Monroe County Court.

The couple sat impassively in York’s Brodheadsville courtroom through the graphic testimony of Dr. Andrea Taroli, medical director of the Childrens’ Advocacy Center, Scranton, and that of state Trooper Shawn Noonan, who investigated the case.

John Emerson Wilgus, 26, is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.

He remains jailed under $50,000 bail.

His wife, Amy Jo Wilgus, 25, charged with endangering the welfare of children, is in jail under $25,000 bail. She cried briefly when York denied her lawyer’s request for release on recognizance bail.

John Wilgus, a small, thin man with blue eyes and short, sandy hair, was represented by Wieslaw Niemoczynski of Stroudsburg. His wife was represented by Thomas P. Sundmaker, also of Stroudsburg.

Assistant District Attorney Sherri A. Stephan is prosecuting the cases.

Taroli, who examined the toddler on Oct. 3, testified she found copious bleeding and numerous cuts and bruises on the child. The child also had a severe ear infection.

Further, she characterized the child’s behavior as “distinctly abnormal” in that the toddler was “withdrawn and extremely cooperative” during the medical examination.

“That would lead me to believe this [alleged sexual assault] was not a one-time occurrence,” Taroli said.

Noonan testified he was called to investigate possible child abuse on Oct. 3, when workers at the child’s day care center discovered large amounts of blood in her diaper and bruises and cuts when they cleaned her.

The toddler routinely arrived at the day care center filthy and in dirty, ill-fitting clothes, former day care worker Cynthia Recek testified. She said the child frequently had bruises, which workers documented.

Noonan said a search of the Wilguses’ trailer home revealed a bloody diaper.

Noonan said on Oct. 5, John Wilgus told him he “might have done this while he was sleepwalking and not remembered.”

Four days later, Wilgus admitted he assaulted the toddler, providing details and saying he “just lost control,” the trooper testified.

The child has been placed in foster care.