EASTON, Pa. \u2014 A former Bethlehem Schools resource officer and soccer coach has lost in an attempt to withdraw his plea to charges of having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Costas Alesta’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea filed was denied by county judge Judge Samuel P. Murray in a one-page order filed Friday, Nov. 7, county District Attorney Stephen G. Baratta said.<\/p>\n
Alestas now will appear before Judge Murray for sentencing. He faces 11 to 21 years in prison and will have to register as a Megan’s Law sex offender for the rest of his life, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Northampton County District Attorney’s Office release <\/p>\n
Alestas, 43, of Palmer Township, on April 23, 2025, before Murray entered a guilty plea. <\/p>\n
Alestas now will appear before Judge Murray for sentencing.<\/p>\n
He faces 11 to 21 years in prison and will have to register as a Megan’s Law sex offender for the rest of his life, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Police Chief Michelle Kott said last May that Alestas was fired following an internal investigation. A 17-year veteran of the force, he was East Hills’ school resource officer for six years and had an exemplary record, she said.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, Bethlehem Police uncovered allegations that Alestas committed sexual offenses upon a minor female victim under his protection as School Resource Officer for East Hills Middle School. <\/p>\n
Details of the offenses<\/p>\n
Police said Alestas committed sex acts with the girl in the boys\u2019 locker room during a school dance while he was working and in uniform.<\/p>\n
He also allegedly took an \u201cupskirt type video\u201d of an 11-year-old on the same date.<\/p>\n
Police said Alestas later committed other acts in his Jeep with the 14-year-old victim in the parking lot of Green Pond Country Club in Bethlehem Township, on April 11; and in his Nissan at the William Penn Park and Ride in the township.<\/p>\n
An analysis of Alestas\u2019 phone showed about 4,980 messages exchanged with the 14-year-old, and 49 phone calls, according to a police affidavit.<\/p>\n
They would have secret meetings and conversations in Alestas\u2019 school office in which Alestas kissed and touched her with her clothes on, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
Police said that evolved into the child undressing in the office and Alestas viewing her naked body.<\/p>\n
Police said an investigation confirmed that Alestas committed offenses. Police also recovered evidence confirming the \u201cupskirt\u201d video.<\/p>\n
Alestas was charged with several sexual offenses, including statutory sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, criminal use of a communications facility and invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n
Alestas later sought to withdraw his plea, but the district attorney’s office opposed his motion. <\/p>\n
Police said at the time they were investigating whether there were other victims, but made no reference to that since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. \u2014 A former Bethlehem Schools resource officer and soccer coach has lost in an attempt to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,19222,19223,19224,19225,19226],"class_list":["post-30290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-police-officer-sex-charge","tag-bethlehem-schools-officer-sex-charge","tag-costas-alestas","tag-costas-alestas-guilty-plea","tag-costas-alestas-sentencing-date"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30290","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=30290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}