A Maryland man used Pennsylvania’s child abuse hotline to file 27 false reports against his ex-girlfriend’s family over the course of a month, State Police-Frackville say.
Kevin Needle, of Mount Airy, Maryland, is wanted on charges State Police filed in that case. He is also wanted on charges East Union Township police filed after a July 21 incident in which police say he threatened to kill the woman and her boyfriend and burn her house down.
A State Police investigator was forwarded five ChildLine referrals on July 20 alleging physical and emotional abuse of a 14-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl at a home on Green Mountain Road in East Union Township, police say. The referrals named three members of the household and listed the source as “Anonymous.” One more came in July 23, and three more July 27, according to police.
A child services investigator contacted police on July 27 and said he believed the anonymous source was Needle, the ex-boyfriend of the girls’ mother. He told police the reports repeated the same information each time and that the most recent one was filed by an “anonymous family friend.” He said his own investigation turned up public posts on Needle’s Facebook account making the same accusations against the family, and he provided screenshots to police.
The woman told police in an interview just before noon on July 29 that she broke up with Needle in January and that he has harassed her since. She said the referrals and the Facebook posts began after he learned she was dating someone new, police say. She told police there is no doubt in her mind Needle is the anonymous source, and she denied all of the child abuse allegations. She gave police two phone numbers associated with him.
Investigators asked the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office to request records from ChildLine on the phone number behind the anonymous reports. Those results, returned around 8 p.m. that day, showed the number submitting the referrals is the same number Needle uses, police say. It matched the numbers the woman and Maryland State Parole and Probation had provided. Police say the carrier is Boost and the name on the account is “Kevin Neil,” and that the cell service area is consistent with Needle’s last known address in Mount Airy.
The referrals kept coming, according to police: one on Aug. 2, four on Aug. 3, and seven between Aug. 12 and Aug. 15. In all, police say Needle submitted 27 ChildLine referrals between July 15 and Aug. 15.
The earlier case dates to July 21, when East Union Township police were dispatched to the Green Mountain Road home for a reported violation of a Protection From Abuse order. The caller reported the suspect would fight with police, and Shenandoah and Union Township officers were sent as backup, police say.
An officer arrived and found a man who was not the suspect, the caller’s brother, who said Needle had told him he was inside the house looking for his speakers, according to police. The doors were locked. The woman arrived and let officers in, and they found no one inside.
Police verified through the Schuylkill County Communication Center that the woman had an active PFA order that evicted and excluded Needle from the residence and barred him from any contact with her.
The woman told police Needle had been texting her. In one message, police say, he wrote: “the stupid m*********** pigs won’t find me, I’m watching the three fat pigs now and when they leave I’m going to come there and kill you and your boyfriend and burn the house down.”
She told police that in a call shortly before 4 p.m. that day, Needle said: “I’m going to burn the house down with [the victim’s boyfriend] in it and I’m going to shoot both because if I can’t have you back no one can.” Police say he then claimed he and a friend were sitting on her porch waiting for her, and asked where his speakers were because he was inside the house.
Needle continued texting and calling the woman’s phone while officers were at the home, and had been calling at all hours of the day and night, police say. Needle lives in Maryland and is on probation there.
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