Ward faces several new sex charges

Boy claims to be a victim Marketing Professor Scott Ward, who was charged last week with soliciting sex from an undercover police officer, faces six additional sex charges now that an alleged witness has come forward, prosecutors said. A 17-year-old white male told police Wednesday that he had sexual contact with Ward several times during 1990 and 1991 at Ward's Main Line mansion, the Montgomery District Attorney's office announced on Friday. The 50-year-old Ward, who has taught at Wharton since 1979, is expected to surrender to the new charges sometime this week. He will be charged with statutory rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, indecent exposure, corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit prostitution, the DA's office said. Reached last night at his home, Ward said, "I just want to say I am innocent and eventually it will be proven." He then hung up the phone. His attorney, Jean Green, could not be reached for comment. Ward was arrested October 1 after allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover state trooper posing as a 15-year-old boy. He was released on $50,000 bail. The Wharton professor had been the target of a six-week investigation into alleged deviant behavior. The teenager who came forward has provided prosecutors with a piece of evidence previously missing from their case – an alleged victim. The boy said Ward initially approached him when he was 12 or 13 years old and Ward asked him if he ever got paid for sexual favors, according to a probable-cause affidavit. After giving the teen his home telephone number, Ward also told the boy he would pay him a finder's fee if he could locate boys to have sex with him, the affidavit said. The boy later called Ward, who brought him to his mansion on a quiet, tree-lined street in Ardmore, an affluent Philadelphia suburb. Ward allegedly performed oral sex on the teenager and gave him $40 on three or four separate occasions before October 18, 1990, the affidavit said. Then in October 1990, the boy began attending the Sleighton School, a Delaware County school for delinquent youths. The boy said he spent every other weekend at Ward's home, where Ward performed oral sex on the then-14-year-old boy 50 to 100 times, the affidavit said. The boy has said Ward admitted having sexual contact with at least three other boys, one of whom was a young exchange student from the Philippines, according to the affidavit. "The victim was shown photographs by L. Scott Ward of a dark-skinned boy performing oral sex on Ward and Ward and the boy having anal sex with each other," the affidavit said. "The victim was also shown a computer video depicting Ward having anal and oral sex with a 14 year-old-boy on Ward's home computer." Last Sunday, Ward went to the boy's residence and told him "not to tell anyone about them having sex together when he was questioned by police and to say simply 'no comment'," the affidavit said. According to the affidavit, Ward told the boy he would get into trouble if he told police about his relationship with Ward. During the next two days, the affidavit continued, Ward called the boy to ask if anyone had questioned him. At one point, Ward complained that the boy's mother had called him and "threatened to contact the District Attorney's Office if he was doing anything to her son."