Former Mounted Patrol policeman, 75, accused of sex with teenage girl
Investigators say Walter Sasse met his alleged victim while working at horse stables in Andorra.
WALTER Sasse spent two decades enforcing the law - but now, the 75-year-old former police officer is on the wrong side of it, accused of sexually preying on a teenage girl.
Sasse, who was a cop on horseback for 18 years in the Philadelphia Police Department's elite Mounted Patrol Unit, was free on bail yesterday after detectives locked him up Wednesday night on a slew of charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, sexual assault, corruption of minors and aggravated indecent assault.
Court records show the alleged assault happened June 1, 2011, but a police source said investigators believe he had an ongoing relationship with the teen that began when she was 15, after they met at a horse stable in Andorra.
A police spokeswoman said yesterday that she had no additional details on the case and referred questions to the Special Victims Unit, where a supervisor declined to release any information. Lt. Anthony McFadden, who is overseeing the case, did not return a call seeking comment last night.
Sasse is to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on March 25.
After retiring from the police force, Sasse became the manager of Courtesy Stable in Andorra. He met his alleged victim at the nonprofit stable, which is "dedicated to instilling good horsemanship practices in our youth of today," its website says.
According to an online biography, Sasse is an Army veteran who rode with the Mounted Patrol Unit's show and drill teams.
A sticker saying "Retired Police, Fire & Prison Guard Association" is on the door of Sasse's stately colonial-style house on a quiet street of well-manicured lawns in Upper Roxborough. A woman who answered the door last night declined to call him to the door.
"I would rather not," the woman said over the noise of a dog barking inside. "Not right now."
Meanwhile, a clinical and forensic psychologist who specializes in child sexual abuse said Sasse's position at the stable could have given him the opportunity to prey on his alleged victim.
"Common interests are not only part of the grooming process, but they also create accessibility, a forum for the relationship to form," said Veronique Valliere of Allentown, a member of Pennsylvania's Megan's Law board.
"They provide a link to forming emotional bonds and provide camouflage to finding the emotional accessibility of the child," she said. "Lots of tests can occur in that environment. A perp can feel out to see how compliant, submissive his potential victim is, and find out how many boundaries he can cross, how he can get inside her head."
Valliere, who has worked with both the victims of child sexual abuse and admitted abusers, said that the perpetrator usually knows that what he or she is doing is wrong but finds ways to ignore those instincts.
In instances like the one in which Sasse has been accused, she said: "Someone like this, who's able to persuade himself that a 15-year-old is on the same physical and emotional level, he tends to be somewhat narcissistic. He likes to be worshipped, obeyed, looked up to, and gets ego gratification from those needs being met."
She said that a teenager can be overtly sexual and flirt with adults, but that it's the adult's responsibility to step back.
"If a 15-year-old asked for the keys to your car, you'd say no. So, if she asked for your penis, why would you say yes?"
- Staff writer David Gambacorta contributed to this report.