Allegheny County man pleads no contest to indecent assault of a child
A Brackenridge man pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges of aggravated indecent assault and dissemination of photos depicting child sexual abuse in Butler County Common Pleas Court.
Matthew Alan Cowan, 27, worked as a guard for a private security company at Seneca Valley School District when the alleged indecent assault occurred in August 2021 and when he allegedly shared a digital photo of a child being sexually abused in 2022. He entered pleas in both cases.
Judge Joseph Kubit accepted the plea agreements reached. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 3 to allow 90 days for the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board to evaluate Cowan.
The agreement in the aggravated indecent assault case calls for Cowan to serve 24-84 months in prison with immediate parole to serve the minimum time on electronic monitoring and 36 months of probation and to have no contact with the child involved. For the dissemination of photos charge, it calls for him to concurrently serve 12-66 months in prison with immediate parole to serve the minimum on electronic monitoring and 36 months of probation.
The felony aggravated indecent assault charge is a tier three offense under the state Sex Offender and Notification Act. The felony dissemination of photos charge is a tier two offense under the act, said Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford.
If the board decides a person meets the criteria for classification as a sexually violent predator, the local prosecutor determines if a hearing is needed to decide if the person actually is a sexually violent predator.
A person convicted of a tier three offense and found to be a sexually violent predator is required to register with state police for the rest of their lives. A person convicted of a tier two offense and found to be a sexually violent predator is required to register for 25 years.
The case stemmed from Jackson Township police originally filing felony charges of sexual contact with a student, criminal use of a communication facility and two counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2021. Misdemeanor charges of strangulation and two counts of indecent assault against Cowan were also filed in 2022.
In Jackson Township, police allege Cowan inappropriately touched a 17-year-old female student on a trail behind the school campus in August 2021. Cowan worked as a security guard at the middle school at the time.
The case also originated with 44 felony charges filed by Cranberry Township police, including dissemination of photos, criminal use of a communication facility and attempted dissemination of photos against Cowan in December 2022.
A female student, who was between 16 and 17 years old in 2021, told police she sent nude and sexually explicit photos to Cowan for about eight months before the beginning of the 2021 school year, according to an affidavit.
Two people reported receiving nude digital images of the girl from an unknown source through Snapchat and Instagram. Instagram records show an account used by Cowan sent 14 nude or sexually-explicit images and videos of the girl to at least seven people on at least 20 occasions between Aug. 21 and Aug. 23, 2022, according to the affidavit.
