{"id":264934,"date":"2026-08-14T00:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264934\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T00:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:14:11","slug":"former-resource-officer-found-guilty-of-drugging-and-raping-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264934\/","title":{"rendered":"Former resource officer found guilty of drugging and raping students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>SCRANTON \u2014At the end of a four-day trial, former Scranton Police Resource Officer Stephen J. Carroll, 50, was found guilty by a Lackawanna County jury on 29 of 30 charges related to the drugging and raping of students.<\/p>\n<p>According to reporting by 2822News, the courtroom needed to be cleared due to Carroll suffering a medical emergency as the jury delivered its verdict.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the trial, multiple witnesses and victims took the stand. Investigators say the crimes took place between Sept. 2009 and Nov. 2017 when he worked at West Scranton High School.<\/p>\n<p>According to testimony, Carroll hosted some victims at his home, and on at least one occasion the abuse occurred at the school while Carroll was in his police uniform.<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday\u2019s office sent out a press release following the verdict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis verdict is not about the predator who committed these heinous acts, but the survivors of this abuse \u2014 who, for years, lived knowing that their abuser was free in the community,\u201d Sunday said. \u201cWhile it does not lessen the severity of the conduct or impact on the survivors, the passage of time can present challenges in court. Given this, we are very pleased that the jurors paid close attention to the facts in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sunday commended the Pennsylvania State Police, Trooper Robert McGrath, and his team for their work investigating and prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n<p>McGrath, of PSP\u2019s Organized Crime Unit, filed charges in 2024 following a presentment by the 52nd statewide investigating grand jury.<\/p>\n<p>Among the other charges Carroll was convicted of were involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and statutory sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p>The case is being prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorneys General Maggie Hayes-Oberst and Helen Park.<\/p>\n<p>Following the reading of the verdict, Carroll\u2019s bail was revoked. He will be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n<p>This story includes reporting originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.2822news.com\/news\/former-resource-officer-found-guilty-of-drugging-and-raping-students\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2822news.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 300px; margin: 5px auto -5px; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/slj-article-box-img-1.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 9px 3px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4;\">Local journalism matters, and your support makes it possible. You can help sustain this work by making a donation or choosing one of our subscription options. Subscribers enjoy valuable benefits, including full access to our e-edition, a reduced ad experience on timesleader.com, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Your support helps ensure independent, high-quality local news remains available today and for future generations. Thank you for standing with local journalism.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"slj-article-box-btn\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timesleader.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click for subscription offers.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story includes reporting originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.2822news.com\/news\/former-resource-officer-found-guilty-of-drugging-and-raping-students\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2822news.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; SCRANTON \u2014At the end of a four-day trial, former Scranton Police Resource Officer Stephen J. Carroll, 50,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-264934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264934","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=264934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}