Ward recharged on four criminal counts

Four criminal charges previously dropped against Marketing Professor Scott Ward have been reinstated, Assistant Montgomery County District Attorney Chris Maloney said yesterday. Ward now faces a total of 11 counts of criminal attempts to commit corruption of minors, prostitution and deviant sexual intercourse from two cases that surfaced last October, when police arrested him on allegations he had solicited sex from minors. At a preliminary hearing held Feb. 22, Conshohocken Judge John Sachaczensky found sufficient evidence to reinstate the four charges dropped in November. Ward said last night he is innocent and his plea has not changed in light of the ruling. He declined to comment on the recent developments, though. "Obviously, I don't want it to be in the papers," he said. The four charges stem from an October sting operation in which Ward allegedly offered money for sex from an undercover state trooper posing as a 15-year-old boy. District Judge Caroline Stine dismissed these charges a month later due to insufficient evidence -- the machine meant to record the alleged conversation between Ward and the trooper had malfunctioned. Maloney said Stine did not think evidence from the undercover operation met the "elements" of the charges. "I respect her opinion," he said. Still, Maloney filed a petition in January to rearrest Ward on the same charges. The charges were filed for the second time Feb. 22 with Sachaczensky. This time, said Maloney, "[the judge] found sufficient evidence to send it up to court." While a court date has not yet been scheduled, Ward is expected to go to trial as early as May. Meanwhile, the Marketing Professor, who is not teaching this semester, is living at home on his own recognizance. Chris Hardwick, director of Wharton Public Affairs, said although Ward has no classes this semester, his status as a professor has not changed. Ward now faces the four "undercover" counts, six charges from a 17-year-old victim, and one additional charge. "Of the eleven [charges], the most serious would be the involuntary deviant sexual intercourse," he said. If convicted on that charge alone, Ward would face 10 to 20 years in prison. Maloney added that since the alleged crime involves minors, guidelines enforce a five-year minimum sentence.