Pennsylvania groom sexually assaults bridesmaid days before wedding, asks her to 'be as happy as possible' for his wife
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged after he was accused of sexually assaulting one of his wife's bridesmaids just two days before his wedding.
State Police began investigating Daniel J. Carney, 28, of Stroudsburg, after they were called to the Leigh Valley Hospital-Pocono, where the 29-year-old victim had told hospital staff she had been sexually assaulted by him during pre-wedding celebrations on August 30, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The victim, from Oregon, told detectives she was in Monroe County because she was a bridesmaid at Carney's wedding, and that on the afternoon of August 30, she and other members of the wedding party had been drinking as they rafted down the Delaware River.
She said she was heavily intoxicated and kept falling into the water from her paddleboat, after which she was placed on a raft for her safety. At around 8 pm, they arrived at the Shawnee Inn, where Carney's wife told the 28-year-old to help her out of the raft and into the parking lot.
The victim said she remembered being led away from the water and then waking up in the men's locker room with Carney biting her and forcefully grabbing her, before blacking out and then waking up again with him on top of her, and her bikini bottoms pulled off.
A criminal complaint states that the assault ended when Carney's wife walked in on the scene and started screaming at him and that they got into a fight in the parking lot. It also states that the next morning, "it was chaos amongst the entire wedding party"
When he was questioned, Carney said he had been extremely intoxicated that night and claimed it was the victim who tried to take advantage of him. He later changed his story and admitted he grabbed her and pulled her into the bathroom. Video surveillance footage confirmed that Carney had forcibly pulled her into the locker room, and reviews of text messages and phone calls showed he had called her to apologize for the incident.
During the call, the 28-year-old told the victim they did not have sex but admitted to sexually assaulting her. He repeatedly apologized and said it was his fault. In text messages he sent to her on the morning of the wedding, he once again apologized and asked, "can we just be as happy as possible" for his wife. He also asked her if she could take emergency day-after contraception, just in case.
A friend of Carney’s told CTV News the couple went through with the wedding.
Carney has been charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an unconscious person, simple assault, and indecent assault.