An Indiana man who police say spent several nights sleeping in a pickup truck in a Schuylkill County church parking lot is charged with failing to register here as a sex offender.
Matthew Girardot, 24, of Goshen, Ind., was charged by State Police with one felony count of failing to register with State Police as a transient sex offender.
A Trooper was sent to Faith Worship Center along Route 61 in West Brunswick Township on Saturday morning for a report of a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot,. Police say they found a maroon Ford F-150 with an Indiana license plate and identified Girardot as one of the people inside.
When the Trooper checked Girardot’s Indiana ID, it showed an active warrant for his arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, according to police. The warrant was issued by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana and is non-extraditable, police say.
Witnesses at the church and at the nearby Rutter’s gas station told police Girardot and his spouse had been sleeping overnight in their vehicle in the church lot for several days and would travel to Rutter’s to use the bathroom. Witnesses said they had seen Girardot going back and forth between the church and Rutter’s for about two weeks, according to police.
When the trooper asked whether he had made a Megan’s Law notification after being in Pennsylvania for several days, Girardot said he was going to complete his Megan’s Law registration the next day, police say.
In 2021, The Goshen News reported that Girardot, then 19, was charged in Elkhart County, Ind., with criminal confinement of a victim under 14. Police there accused him of helping hold down a 13-year-old in a cornfield while another teen molested the child during a mass runaway from Bashor Children’s Home in August 2020, according to the news source. Girardot admitted being with the group and seeing what happened but denied holding the victim down, they reported.
Girardot was arraigned Saturday before Magisterial District Judge Edward Tarantelli and sent to Schuylkill County Prison after he was unable to post $20,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 20 before Judge Casimir Kosciolek.
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