Former Bethlehem Police Department school resource officer Costas Alestas was sentenced Monday to 10 to 20 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a student at East Hills Middle School, according to a news release from the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office.
The 44-year-old Easton man pleaded guilty in April to sexually assaulting the girl in the boys’ locker room during a school dance. Alestas was a police officer assigned to the school.
Alestas tried to withdraw his guilty plea in September, but Northampton County Judge Samuel Murray denied that request in November.
“Mr. Alestas has maintained his innocence from the beginning of this case,” his attorney, Thomas Clemens of Philadelphia, said on Monday.
Clemens said he hopes Murray will honor his post-sentence motion requesting a new trial. If not, he’ll ask the Pennsylvania Superior Court to allow Alestas to withdraw his plea and go to trial.
Alestas admitted to repeated inappropriate communications with the girl between March and May 2024, admitted he sexually assaulted her in his car at the William Penn Highway Park and Ride in Bethlehem Township and admitted he sexually assaulted her in his car at Green Pond Country Club in Bethlehem Township.
He pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
Alestas also admitted he took an upskirt video of a different girl at a different time in the school. He pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy and got a year of probation for that crime, according to District Attorney Stephen Baratta.
Murray sentenced Alestas on Monday. He also found Alestas to be a sexually violent predator, which means he will have to register his address with law enforcement for the rest of his life.