A former Port Allegany volunteer coach pleaded guilty late last month to having sex with a student while she was volunteering at the school.
Denise Evens, 45, former Bolivar-Richburg (N.Y.) School District teacher, pleaded guilty in McKean County Court to a charge of institutional sexual assault of a minor. She will be evaluated by the Sex Offender Assessment Board to determine if she meets the definition of a sexually violent predator. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 11.
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer said Evens was charged by Officer Adam Dickerson of the Port Allegany Police Department after he received a report of Evens engaging in a sex act with a male who was a student with the school district in 2022. At the time of the crime, she was a volunteer at the school.
According to the criminal complaint, Port Allegany Borough Police were contacted by the McKean County District Attorney’s office about ChildLine reports filed with their office. Dickerson opened an investigation and scheduled an interview with an alleged victim.
The male told Dickerson that he was 17 and a student at Port Allegany School District when sexual contact with Evens first began. He told the officer that he knew Evens because he went to school with her children and would see her at sporting events. She began to make contact with him through Snapchat and began flirting, and then she messaged him that she was out walking and he should pick her up. He said this was around the end of July or beginning of August 2022. He picked her up and they went to the cemetery on Chestnut Street, where she performed a sexual act before the two had intercourse, the complaint stated.
About a week later, she went to the juvenile’s residence where the two had sexual contact and then intercourse. After this, the two stopped speaking to each other, the complaint alleged.
The officer learned that Evens applied to be a volunteer coach for the girls’ basketball team, and was a coach at the time of the contact with the juvenile, the complaint stated.
She had taught for Bolivar-Richburg from 2002 to 2022 before being placed on administrative leave, the district said in a statement at the time of her arrest.
Evens is represented by Erie attorney Justin Panighetti. She remains free on $75,000 bail.
