A former Scranton police officer and school resource officer accused of sexually assaulting multiple high school students over nearly a decade went on trial this week in Lackawanna County.

Defendant Stephen Carroll watched from the defense table as Dr. Steven Brunetti, an emergency room physician, testified about treating a teenager at Geisinger Community Medical Center in September 2014.

Brunetti testified that the teenager told hospital staff someone tried to touch him inappropriately. The youth explained he did not report the incident because a Scranton police officer committed the assault, according to the doctor’s testimony under questioning by prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office.

Medical records from the emergency room visit showed the teenager tested positive for benzodiazepines and cannabis, Brunetti said.

Nearly a decade of alleged abuse

Carroll, 50, of 2902 Frink St., is accused of crimes that occurred from 2009 to 2017, and included sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old, sending graphic text messages, engaging in oral sex and attempting anal sex with the victims.

His alleged victims included four male West Scranton High School students, as well as a fifth juvenile whom he met while responding to the boy’s residence for a family’s mental health issue.

Carroll would host “keg parties” in the woods behind his home, invite his victims inside and provide them with additional alcohol, police said.

Police say Carroll continued grooming the boys until they developed a relationship and then invited them to his school-based office or home and sexually assaulted them.

Carroll was removed from his role as a school resource officer in 2018 and left the Scranton Police Department in 2022.

“This public servant took an oath to protect his community and was specifically assigned to look out for the well being of students — instead he used his position of authority to groom and sexually assault multiple teenagers,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a news release at the time of Carroll’s arrest.

The trial continues Wednesday before Judge Michael Barrasse.