A Greensburg man convicted earlier this year of failing to disclose a prior conviction before volunteering at a middle school musical production was ordered Tuesday to serve one year on probation.
After a trial in January, Brad Geyer, 40, was convicted of one misdemeanor count of not complying with the state’s child protective services law, which requires school volunteers to disclose previous arrests and convictions of crimes involving children.
Police charged Geyer and his wife, Tobitha Sasso, 42, with similar counts in connection with the Norwin Middle School’s 2020 production of “Frozen Jr.”
Investigators said Sasso, an English teacher at the school who served as the musical’s director, knew about Geyer’s prior arrest, in 2018, but allowed him to volunteer in the show’s production and did not inform district officials that her husband was no longer eligible to obtain required clearances to work with children. She was charged as an accomplice to Geyer.
Sasso was found not guilty of two misdemeanor offenses by the same jury that convicted Geyer.
Geyer did not testify during the trial but spoke briefly at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.
“He said he understands the decision the jury came to,” defense attorney Shane Gannon said.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio imposed the one-year probation sentence and ordered that it run current to a probation sentence Geyer was assessed in November 2019 by a judge in Fayette County.
According to court records, in that case Geyer pleaded guilty to furnishing alcohol to a minor and was sentenced to serve three years on probation.
Sasso, who had been suspended from her job at Norwin after her arrest, no longer teaches, according to her lawyer, Brian Aston.
Geyer previously worked as a Connellsville City councilman and legislative aide to state Sen. Pat Stefano. He was terminated from his aide position after the charges were filed in Fayette County. He also was removed as president of a small community theater, the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale, after the allegations surfaced.
