{"id":268598,"date":"2026-08-20T03:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/268598\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T03:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:26:08","slug":"former-lackawanna-county-police-officer-guilty-of-sexually-abusing-students-while-school-resource-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/268598\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Lackawanna County Police Officer Guilty of Sexually Abusing Students while School Resource Officer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prison-400x250-1.jpg\" data-caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prison-400x250-1.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Prison-400x250\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>A former Lackawanna County police officer, who served as a school resource officer at West Scranton High School, was convicted of 29 charges regarding sexual abuse of students years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Following a four-day trial, a Lackawanna County jury on Thursday afternoon convicted 50-year-old Stephen J. Carroll of rape and 28 other offenses. Bail was revoked.<\/p>\n<p>According to testimony, Carroll hosted some of the victims at his home, where they were provided alcohol. The abuse happened there and, on at least one occasion, at school while Carroll was in police uniform.<\/p>\n<p>The crimes happened in the late 2000s and early 2010s.\u00a0 Carroll will be sentenced on a later date.<\/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 Attorney General 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>\u201cI commend Trooper McGrath and the Pennsylvania State Police for their tenacious work on this case, and my prosecution team for winning a hard-earned verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, following a presentment by the 52nd Statewide Investigat\u00ading Grand Jury, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Robert McGrath, of PSP\u2019s Organized Crime Unit, filed charges.<\/p>\n<p>Among the other charges Carroll was convicted of were involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and statutory sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pennwatchmedia.com\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"PW_2024_LeaderAd\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/PW_2024_LeaderAd.png\" alt=\"\"   width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Lackawanna County police officer, who served as a school resource officer at West Scranton High School,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-268598","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\/268598","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=268598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}