Join the Topix community today:

Part-Time Clown Serving Time For Molestation

May 15, 2008

Original CBS 3 article: Part-Time Clown Serving Time For Molestation

A former police officer and part-time clown is facing 12 to 35 years in prison in the attempted rape of a Lebanon County teenager.

Thirty-five-year-old Michael Fernsler of Annville will serve that sentence after a 26- to 52-year term for molesting two 4-year-old girls in Swatara Township, Dauphin County, in 2006.

Lebanon County President Judge Robert Eby likens what he heard Wednesday to "the stuff we have seen in horror movies."

Fernsler has been a Shippensburg University police officer and a North Londonderry Township patrolman. And he's appeared before children's groups as Chuckles the Clown.

He has pleaded guilty to both the Dauphin and Lebanon county charges. Police say he accosted the teenage girl after she got off a school bus, bound her with duct tape and forced her into the woods at knifepoint.

Information from: The Patriot-News, http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews

COMMENT ON THE STORY

Type in your comments to post to the forum

Name
(appears on your post)

Comments

Type the numbers you see in the image on the right:

Please note by clicking on "Post Comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator. Send us your feedback.

Annville, PA Forum

Topic	Comments
5 of 7 city schools miss PSSA mark	3
Police blotter	33
Smoking tenant starts fire	4
Woman files suit against city police	22
Victim of July 14 blaze released from...	1
Burn victim’s mom thankful for fire...	9
Mom sent to pen for selling drugs	4
Swatara tackles drainage problems	1
Update needed in Reber case	17
Folmer to speak at political group’...	1

Read all comments | Start a discussion »

Your town. Your news. Your take.

What is Topix?

Topix is the largest news community on the web.

We take news from over 60,000 sources and categorize those stories to over 40,600 locations and 450,000 topics.

Topix breaks the mold of traditional news sites by allowing our users to edit the news. We've built a suite of editing tools, so Topix users can make sure all the stories that matter get the attention they deserve.

The best part? You can comment on everything. Every story, every poll, every user-submitted photo.

Jump in, find a topic and start talking!

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about Topix, visit our blog.

Part-Time Clown Serving Time For Molestation

Annville, PA Forum

More Annville News