Essington man convicted in child molestation trial

MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> An Essington man was convicted following a twoday jury trial last week on charges of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old and corruption of minors for touching a 5-year-old girl’s genitals with his hand and sleeping with her in bed.

Robert William Schestok, 29, is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 18 before Common Pleas Court Judge Margaret J. Amoroso, though defense attorney Baltazar Rubio has contested the conviction as going against the weight of the evidence and requested a new trial.

Jurors heard from the 7-year-old victim, who was 5 years old at the time of the offense around January 2017. She told Assistant District Attorney Diane Horne that Schestok came into a bathroom once at her father’s house while she was using it and touched her genitals with his hand.

“It felt weird, it was almost like a pinch,” she said.

The victim said there was only the one occurrence, but also testified that Schestok would sometimes come into bed with her at her father’s house and sleep with his arm over her. She said it was “awkward” and that she would leave the bed to go sleep with her father when it happened.

The victim’s mother said she was in a heated custody battle with her ex-husband at the time when the victim first revealed something was amiss. The victim had told a friend of the mother’s that Schestok described her genitals as a house because “people can go in and out,” prompting more questions from the mother.

While speaking with the child, the mother said she revealed that “Rob liked to touch her when she went pee-pee,” thrusted her hips in the air while pointing at her genitals, and pointed at her buttocks saying, “It hurt.”

The mother said the girl also described one time when Rob had put “peepee” on her leg and she needed to wipe it off.

The woman said she did not know a “Rob” among her ex-husband’s group of friends, but was able to use the name and a description from the child to determine the girl meant Schestok from her ex-husband’s Facebook friends group. When the mother showed a printed picture of the Facebook image of Schestok to the victim, she said she confirmed it was “Rob” and became upset, clinging to her.

The mother said her daughter has since had nightmares, become more defiant and is having anxiety issues. She has also been attending counseling for the past two and a half years, the mother said.

Rubio argued in closing that this was, at heart, a custody matter that had gotten out of hand and indicted the story was fabricated to ensure custody went to the mother.

He said the mother’s and daughter’s stories did not match, with the victim saying only one instance of touching occurred while the mother indicated there were numerous contacts. Rubio added the “pee-pee” on the leg was clearly meant to reference ejaculate in the terms of a 5-year-old, though the victim made no mention of such a scenario in her testimony.

Horne argued that small details like the child thrusting her hips would not occur to an adult to make up if they were trying to fabricate something and that the obvious thing one would coach a child to say would be that Schestok had raped her, not that he touched her genitals once while she used the bathroom.

She said Schestok stayed at the ex-husband’s house frequently, had unsupervised access to the child, and knew of the custody issues, which he took advantage of for his own sexual gratification.

Schestok remains free on bail pending sentencing. An order to have no contact with children remains in place.