Inmate pleads guilty to sending lewd mail

By Monica Pryts
Herald Staff Writer

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP August 28, 2009 08:29 pm

— A Mercer County Jail inmate pleaded guilty to sending a Hempfield Township woman a letter that contained inappropriate drawings and comments.
William Leonard Shultz III, 20, formerly of 521 Delaware Road, Apartment 15, Fredonia, was charged Aug. 11 by Hempfield Township police with harassment and disorderly conduct.
He pleaded guilty Aug. 21 at a preliminary hearing before District Judge Brian Arthur, Greenville, and was sentenced to 2 years of state probation. If he violates the probation, he faces 3 to 6 months in jail for each charge.
According to the police complaint:
The woman told police Aug. 7 she received a letter Aug. 6 from the jail in Findley Township in which Shultz said he wanted to have sexual relations with her when he’s released.
The letter had a drawing of what Shultz said was a tracing of himself and a dried substance he said was a bodily fluid.
The woman said the letter didn’t appear to have been opened before she received it. She told police she went to school with Shultz but hadn’t seen him since.
According to online court records and Herald files, Shultz is in jail after violating his probation in connection with a July 2008 incident in Fredonia to which he pleaded guilty to open lewdness for urinating in public and facing a girl while exposed.
He was sentenced in January to 1 year of probation.
The girl told police he was “in her face but he did not touch her.” Police said Shultz told them he was playing with two young people and his pants fell down by accident, and that he exposed himself as a joke three or four times.
Online court records also show Shultz violated his probation when he was charged May 1 by Pittsburgh police with criminal trespassing, loitering and prowling at night, resisting arrest and defiant trespass.
He pleaded guilty May 21 to a summary charge of defiant trespass and the other charges were withdrawn. Shultz was returned to Mercer County Jail but the online records didn’t indicate the length of his sentence.