Preliminary hearing set for former Wellsville man on charges of sexually assaulting teen girl

Booking photo for Juan Schallenberger (Courtesy: Cache County Jail).

LOGAN — A possible plea deal is being negotiated for a 21-year-old Wellsville man, suspected of molesting a teenage girl seven years ago. Juan C. Schallenberger was transferred back to the Cache County Jail in May, after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Schallenberger appeared in 1st District Court Tuesday morning. He was previously charged with four counts of sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony; and one count of voyeurism, a class A misdemeanor.

Defense attorney Tyler Call asked the court to schedule a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors would present their evidence in the case. He explained, they will likely waive the hearing and enter a plea deal. The specifics of the agreement were not disclosed.

Judge Brian Cannell scheduled the hearing for November 7. He ordered Schallenberger to return to court then.

According to a released affidavit, the victim, who is now 17-years-old, told investigators how she was molested by the suspect multiple times when she was younger. She described how the first time, the suspect touched her inappropriately while the two were in the back seat of a vehicle. Later, he allegedly molested her other times at her home and in her backyard. On one occasion, she also described catching him, looking in her window while she was changing clothes.

The victim confronted Schallenberger during that time. He claimed he was trying to find a stray pet. He later moved to Illinois.

After interviewing the victim, Cache County Sheriff’s detectives contacted police in Mahomet, Illinois. They questioned Schallenberger, who later admitted to each of the allegations.

Schallenberger remains out of jail on pre-trial supervision. He could face up to 15-years in prison if convicted.


[email protected]

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.