A man from Lower Pottsgrove admitted to giving a teenage girl drugs and gifts for sex. He has confessed to sexual assault charges and may face several years in prison.
Eric Carmine Cellucci, 41, from the 2600 block of Allison Drive, pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault and production of child pornography. These events occurred in 2023 with a 15-year-old girl.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill postponed sentencing to allow for completion of a background investigation report and evaluation by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board. This board will determine if Cellucci meets criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator. Predators face more stringent restrictions while on parole and probation.
Cellucci will also undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
Cellucci could face 3 to 6 years in prison on the charges.
Regardless of the eventual sentence, Cellucci will need to report his address to state police for life to comply with the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Cellucci was sent to jail without bail until his sentencing later this year.
Assistant District Attorney Bradley Walter Deckel is handling the case. Defense lawyer George Griffith Jr. represented Cellucci during the court proceedings.
The investigation began on Oct. 3, 2023, when Lower Pottsgrove police received a report that Cellucci had sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl who lived in the township. Cellucci provided the girl with drugs and gifts in exchange for sex, detectives alleged.
Detectives obtained text communications between Cellucci and the girl that included messages about drug usage, “including an incident where the two engaged in drug use at a nearby park,” according to the criminal complaint filed by Lower Pottsgrove Detective Joseph Campbell.
Cellucci also sent the girl images of his genitals and encouraged the girl to send him nude photos of her, detectives alleged, which made out the basis for the child pornography charge.
“These messages detailed sexual interests and plans for sexual encounters,” Campbell alleged. “In several of the exchanges, Cellucci encourages (the victim) as a minor to engage in sexual activity with him. In several of the messages, Cellucci entices (the victim) to continue in the sexual relationship with him by means of suggesting financial benefits, gifts and illegal drugs.”
When the girl was interviewed by child social workers she disclosed that Cellucci told her he was 31 years old and that he was aware of her age. The girl told authorities about meeting Cellucci at a park in the 2600 block of East High Street where she said Cellucci provided her with alcohol and they engaged in sexual activity on a picnic table, according to the arrest affidavit.
The girl recalled a similar encounter in a wooded area at Sanatoga Lake Park, court documents indicate.
The girl told police that Cellucci said he was a drug dealer with ties to a Mexican group, and she became afraid of him because of the stories he told about the drug business and his part in it, according to the legal complaint.
Cellucci allegedly gave the girl jewelry and a purse as presents.
Other accusations of trafficking people, non-consensual sexual activity, contacting a minor unlawfully, indecently touching a minor and influencing a minor are expected to be dropped against Cellucci at the time of sentencing.
