EBENSBURG — A New Jersey man was sentenced Thursday to four to eight years in state prison on his guilty pleas to the sexual abuse of a Johnstown area teenaged girl whom he met online.
Andrew Luko, 29, of Bridgeton, N.J., will serve the sentence in New Jersey, where he is in a four-year program for sex offenders at a treatment center in Avenel, Judge David Tulowitzki ordered.
But Tulowitzki warned that if Luko does not successfully complete the treatment program, he will be brought back to Pennsylvania to serve the sentence here. The judge fined him $2,000 plus costs.
In October, Luko pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sexual assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault for meeting twice with the girl in Johnstown in 2007. Both times he took her to a motel, where authorities said the sexual abuse took place.
The detectives were able to track down the defendant after the girl told them she thought the man’s last name was Luko and that he drove an SUV. Authorities learned his name through motel records and his Ford Blazer vehicle registration.
Luko had pleaded guilty to child endangerment in New Jersey for sending child porn to a minor there, District Attorney Kelly Callihan said. It was determined that he was under investigation there when the Cambria County probe was initiated, she said.
Defense attorney Richard Klineburger of Philadelphia said the incidents here were “a stupid and life-changing experience” for his client, who he said has lost his job and suffered embarrassment and humiliation.
In reply to questions from the judge, Luko said that he had no connection to this area and would have no reason to ever return.
Tulowitzki said the fact that the defendant is in treatment in New Jersey was a factor he took into consideration in the sentence.
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