A former Lackawanna County reverend who was caught trying to set up a sexual liaison with a child during online chats with an undercover police officer was sentenced Thursday to serve up to 32 months in state prison and will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years.
Robert John Morgan, 76, of 486 Third St., Moosic, previously pleaded guilty in April to a felony charge of unlawful contact with a minor in exchange for prosecutors dropping additional charges against him.
Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough sentenced Morgan on Thursday to serve 16-32 months in prison followed by five years of probation.
Prosecutors said Morgan — who at the time of his arrest last September was a reverend at the Moosic Assembly of God — began contacting an undercover Kingston Twp. police officer who was posing online as an adult with “direct contact” with a child under the age of 16.
Following a sexually explicit exchange about the child, Morgan was arrested when he showed up to meet the fictitious child in Kingston Twp., prosecutors said.
In court Thursday, Morgan did not offer an apology for his actions but instead listed a number of ailments that prompted his retirement as a truck driver, including shortness of breath, sleep apnea, arthritis and dizzy spells.
“I find it interesting that you have all these medical conditions, yet you wanted to have sex with a child,” Vough interjected.
Morgan responded that he had not, in fact, been seeking sex with a child but instead had responded to the officer’s post to inquire why a juvenile was being offered up for sexual abuse.
“If that’s what you were trying to do, you have a strange way of doing it,” Vough said, offering to read some of Morgan’s sexually explicit comments in open court.
Morgan declined the offer.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Coleman requested a standard-range sentence for the offense, as did Child Public Defender Joseph Yeager.
In imposing the sentence of 16-32 months followed by five years of probation, Vough ordered Morgan to register as a sex offender for the next 25 years.
Morgan was remanded to the state Department of Corrections to serve his sentence, receiving no credit for any time served.