Update: Ex-Cranberry EMS Director to Stand Trial on Rape Charges

The suspended executive director of Cranberry Township's ambulance service has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he raped an unconscious 19-year-old.

Steve Frank Tedesco Jr., 30, of Cranberry, was held for Butler County Court during a preliminary hearing today before District Judge David Kovach in Cranberry.

He is man who fell asleep at an Evans City house party in March. Tedesco also is charged with providing alcohol to that 19-year-old and two other minors.

After being postponed twice, today’s hearing was delayed because Tedesco arrived nearly 45 minutes late to the courtroom.

The 19-year-old, who was flanked by his mother, grandparents, girlfriend and other friends, was the only person to testify at the hearing. Patch does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

The teen said he arrived with Tedesco to the party, which was held at the home of a friend, around 9:30 p.m. on March 5. He said Tedesco brought Yuengling beer and Mike’s Hard Lemonade to the party. The friends were celebrating Tedesco’s news that he was having a baby girl, the teen testified.

He said the group began drinking around a fire at the home on Maple Drive. Around midnight, the teen said, he went inside and -- heavily intoxicated from drinking eight beers -- fell asleep on the floor of the game room. He said Tedesco brought a sleeping bag to the party and fell asleep on the floor next to him.

When he woke, the teen said, Tedesco had pulled down the gym shorts he was wearing without his knowledge and was performing oral sex on him.

The teen said Tedesco stopped once he noticed the teen was awake.

“I was very disturbed and freaked out,” the teen said. “I panicked and I didn’t know how to react.”

The teen said he went to the other side of the room and woke his two friends, who also had fallen asleep in the game room, by shouting at Tedesco.

Later, he said, Tedesco tried texting him “eight or nine times.”

The following day, the teen said, he went to Evans City police. An Evans City officer and a state trooper monitored a phone call in which he and Tedesco discussed the incident, he said.

“He apologized and then told me he did it because of the alcohol we drank,” he said.

He said he and Tedesco had been friends for more than a year. Michael Zunder, Tedesco’s attorney, also questioned the teen and asked him about flirty emails and text messages he shared with Tedesco prior to the party.

The teen replied that he thought Tedesco was joking.

Tedesco was a professional EMT and a volunteer with the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company before his arrest March 9. He became executive director of the ambulance service after a nationwide search several years ago. He also was charged with one count each of indecent assault and indecent assault of an unconscious person.

The Cranberry Township Emergency Medical Services suspended Tedesco without pay after his arrest. The fire company also suspended him.

Tedesco is scheduled for formal arraignment June 21.