{"id":106042,"date":"2026-02-05T15:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106042\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T15:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:38:23","slug":"former-amherst-resident-found-guilty-of-predatory-sexual-assault-of-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106042\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Amherst resident found guilty of predatory sexual assault of a child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following a five-day trial and two days of deliberations, a 57\u2011year\u2011old man was convicted in Erie County on a serious felony charge.<\/p>\n<p>AMHERST, NY \u2014 A jury found man, formerly of Amherst, guilty of predatory sexual assault against a child.<\/p>\n<p>Claude T. Tortora, 57, was found guilty after nearly two days of deliberations following a five-day trial in Erie County. The verdict was delivered on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/crime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Erie County District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a>, jurors convicted Tortora on the sole count in the indictment, which stemmed from allegations that he engaged in acts of sexual conduct with a child under the age of 13. Prosecutors said the offenses occurred &#8220;between on or about June 1, 2013, and on or about April 5, 2018,&#8221; at a location in the Town of Amherst.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant was known to the victim, prosecutors said. Tortora was apprehended in Buffalo in February of 2024; he had been living in Prescott, Ariz.<\/p>\n<p>Tortora faces up to 25 years to life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced before Erie County Court on March 24.<\/p>\n<p>Tortora is being held without bail, and a temporary order of protection issued on behalf of the victim remains in effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a five-day trial and two days of deliberations, a 57\u2011year\u2011old man was convicted in Erie County on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-106042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}