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Huntingdon man loses appeal

Hollabaugh convicted of child sexual assault

A Huntingdon County man serving a minimum of 26 1/2 years in prison for the sexual assault of several young children has lost his appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Joshua Lee Hollabaugh, 35, formerly of Mapleton Depot, appealed his 2018 convictions by contending the Huntingdon County judge overseeing the case erred when he consolidated charges involving the four child victims into one trial.

Hollabaugh, represented by Centre County attorney Lance T. Marshall, also maintained that the guilty verdicts were not supported by the evidence.

Huntingdon County President Judge George N. Zanic dismissed Hollabaugh’s post-trial complaints, explaining that he consolidated the cases because the evidence from each victim helped “provide the complete story of how Hollabaugh abused these young girls.”

“The evidence is impossible to separate. The single incidents of abuse cannot be told without involving the episodes of abuse that happened at the same time and place,” Zanic explained.

He pointed out the evidence involving each victim was not complicated and “was methodically presented by the Commonwealth, and could be easily separated by the jurors.”

The Huntingdon judge stated the testimony of each victim was alone sufficient to form the basis of the convictions.

The defense argument that Hollabaugh was prejudiced by having to defend against separate accusations involving four victims in one trial was outweighed by “judicial economy, and more importantly, the victims testifying in multiple trials if the trials had been separated,” Zanic concluded.

The defense also contested the weight of the evidence, noting “the scales of justice totter on her pedestal and shock one’s sense of justice.”

The alleged ages of the victims were uncertain at the time of the alleged abuse, and the victims’ testimony contained contradictions, the defense claimed.

For instance, two children testified Hollabaugh sexually abused them in his bedroom at home, while a third child who was in the room was unaware of abuse occurring.

In a separate incident, another child victim said she was in Hollabaugh’s bedroom using his computer, while he contended he did not have a computer.

Zanic ruled the weight-of-evidence issue “lacked merit,” pointing out the victims’ testimony was credible.

A Superior Court panel that included Judges Victor P. Stabile, Maria McLaughlin and John L. Musmanno, found in favor of the prosecution and upheld Hollabaugh’s sentence of 26¢- to 53-years in state prison.

He is incarcerated in the State Correctional Institution at Albion.

Hollabaugh, who is deaf, lived with his parents, and his mother, Rebecca, for years operated a babysitting service.

Three of the victims were children being tended by Hollabaugh’s mother while the fourth was a child who visited the home and played with the other children.

According to the testimony at his trial, he lured the children into his bedroom by asking them to clean his room. The charges stated the abuse began in 2001 and continued until 2011.

All of the child victims are now adults.

The abuse came to light when one of the victims contacted law enforcement.

The jury convicted Hollabaugh of multiple counts of indecent assault of a child under 13, statutory sexual assault, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, one count of rape of child and involuntary sexual intercourse with a child under 16.

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