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Court: Serial child molester can’t dodge 959-year prison term

An appeal to lessen the sentence a serial child molester must serve has been denied

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Walter Frank Meyerle.

Photo Pa. DOC

By C1 Staff

BUCKS COUNTY — An appeal to lessen the sentence a serial child molester must serve has been denied.

PennLive reports that a Superior Court judge upheld the 959 year state prison term that Walter Frank Meyerle was sentenced to in 2013.

Meyerle was convicted of molesting 15 children, ages ranging from 4 to 17.

Meyerle argued that investigators seized some of the key evidence against him, including files from his laptop computer, by using search warrants that weren’t valid.

Authorities received the warrant after the mother of one of the victims told them that her daughter was engaging in sex acts with Meyerle. The girl backed up her mother, saying that she and Meyerle had phone sex dozens of times, and telephone records confirmed this claim.

Investigators also pointed out that several of his victims corroborated that he had a dollar sign tattooed on his penis.

Meyerle contended that police should have known their affidavit for the search warrant contained some information he claimed was false or so old it was “stale.” The false information included a rape that he says he couldn’t have committed as he was in prison at the time.

Meyerle also argued that his laptop was seized illegally due to the fact that the serial number was incorrectly listed on the search warrant.

State judge Paula Francisco Ott found no basis for any of Meyerle’s challenges.

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