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Jury Selection Begins In McFall Case

The Daily Local

Sunday August 19, 2007

By R. Johnathan Tuleya

Jury selection begins today for the trial of the Valley tow truck driver charged with drugging and then sexually abusing several of his employees.

According to police, the defendant, Mark Ethan McFall, 43, dolled out the medication to his unsuspecting victims — at least one believed he had been summoned by McFall as part of a Mafia initiation ritual, reports state — then molested the unconscious or groggy men, often recording his acts.

McFall, a former South Coatesville police officer who now runs his family’s towing company, located on the 1100 block of West Lincoln Highway, is charged with multiple counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, unauthorized administration of an intoxicant and related charges in four open cases against him.

One former employee, a 22-year-old man whose name has been withheld, testified at earlier court proceedings that the defendant served him a drug-laced beer, tied him up and then sexually assaulted him on Sept. 25, 2003.

The employee told authorities he had been invited there by the defendant to join the mob, but first he had to pass a “test of loyalty.”

Pennsylvania State Police first arrested the defendant on Nov. 22, 2005, in connection with the alleged assault of a former 19-year-old male employee two weeks earlier.

The alleged victim told police McFall had given him a pill after he complained to his boss about feeling ill. After taking the drug, the victim lost consciousness and awoke to find McFall molesting him, according to police reports.

Investigators later executed search warrants at McFall’s business and seized more than 100 bottles of pills, digital nude photographs of the 19-year-old victim and floppy disks that contained two digital videos of the defendant allegedly assaulting another victim, police said.

In the videos, the 19-year-old victim appears to be intoxicated and unresponsive as the person recording the video assaults him, police said.

Even as the charges mounted against McFall, he had remained free on bail until February, when Common Pleas Judge Phyllis R. Streitel ordered that he be arrested after learning the defendant had set up a meeting with a witness subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating his case.

McFall has said the encounters with the men were consensual.

He also has been charged with similar crimes by authorities in New Jersey for an alleged incident in the beach town of Brigantine. However, the status of that case is uncertain. Earlier this month a man connected to the investigation committed suicide.

Common Pleas Judge Phyllis R. Streitel will preside over the Chester County cases.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Rongaus is the prosecutor, and defense attorney Justin McShane will represent McFall.

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