Police: Local Undertaker Harold J. Marshall Jr Molested Sleeping Woman

ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. -- An Ellwood City funeral director has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in her sleep, after police said he first coaxed the woman's boyfriend out of an apartment with a report that lights were left on in a parked car.

Charges were filed against Harold Marshall Jr., 51, who supervises the Marshall Funeral Home.

According to a criminal complaint, Marshall went to an apartment near the funeral home about 3 a.m. Sunday to alert a man staying there about the vehicle's lights. That man was having sex with a woman, but went outside to investigate the vehicle's lights for several minutes, police said. The woman fell asleep while her boyfriend was outside, only to be awakened by some sexual touching by a man she initially believed was her retuing boyfriend, police said.

"At first, she thought it was her boyfriend and she had her eyes closed," police said in the complaint. "The victim then called her boyfriend's name ... out loud. A male then replied, 'I'm not (the boyfriend).'"

The woman then opened her eyes to see Marshall, pushed him off, and got dressed, police said.

Ellwood City police Lt. David Kingston said some information not contained in the criminal complaint helped explain what he acknowledged was a strange sequence of events.

Kingston said Marshall knows the tenant of the apartment in question and they believe he was acquainted with the woman and her boyfriend, who were spending the night after what police believe was a drinking party. Police believe Marshall may have been to the apartment in the hours before the alleged assault, but that he had to leave to work late at the funeral home at some point, Kingston said.

Police believe Marshall saw the car's dome light on when he left the funeral home and, knowing who the car belonged to, retued to the apartment. It tued out the car belonged to the sister of the alleged victim's boyfriend. The boyfriend told police he wasn't familiar with the car and had difficulty figuring out how to tu off the lights, which is why it took several minutes for him to retu to the bedroom, Kingston said.

Police believe the report of the car's lights being left on was "probably true," but Kingston said police are unsure whether Marshall used that "as a pretext to get up there" and assault the woman, or just acted on the spur of the moment once her boyfriend left the apartment.

Marshall did give police a statement in which "he acknowledged grabbing her" but said the victim is alleging more egregious sexual contact, Kingston said. Marshall also allegedly told the woman's boyfriend that he grabbed her, when the boyfriend retued to apartment and confronted the funeral director, police said.

Marshall faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 30 on charges of aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and indecent assault of an unconscious person.