Willistown Teen Faces Trial on Child Corruption Charges

Editor's note: This article contains some graphic language.

A 19-year-old Willistown man is headed to trial on numerous felony charges after allegedly helping a 15-year-old girl hide in an abandoned building after she ran away from home.

Kevin Hooven waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday before Judge Chester Darlington. The charges against him include corruption of children, luring a child into a building and possessing a topless photo of the girl.

Stashed in Daylesford Abbey

According to court records, on July 21, Willistown Police responded to the report of a missing 15-year-old girl, whom they found the same day walking along Paoli Pike with Hooven. She was returned home, but later the same night she ran away again for four days.

On July 31, she told police she'd stayed at an abandoned building in Paoli: 

[T]he defendant led her to an abandoned residence on the grounds of the Daylesford Abbey on Devon Road where she stayed until she finally returned home. The juvenile stated that the defendant, who she considered her boyfriend, had sex with her numerous times, provided her with food and water, and stayed overnight with her on two of the nights.

The age difference between Hooven and the girl is less than 48 months, which is why statutory rape was not among the charges, according Willistown Police Det. Steve Jones.

Photo on a stolen iPhone

The 15-year-old also told police that Hooven had helped hide her from police when she ran away from home in June, even as police checked his home. She admitted accompanying Hooven and another juvenile as they "entered unlocked vehicles and removed items including money, change, iPods and cell phones from the vehicles," according to court records.

Hooven was arrested in July for possessing an iPhone reported stolen from an East Whiteland Township resident. According to the criminal complaint, police found on the phone "an image of the 15 year old juvenile partially clothed with her breasts exposed while in a seductive pose." The girl admitted she sent the photo to Hooven.

Pennsylvania law states, "Any person who causes or knowingly permits a child under the age of 18 years to engage in a prohibited sexual act or in the simulation of such act is guilty of a felony of the second degree if such person knows, has reason to know or intends that such act may be photographed, videotaped, depicted on computer or filmed."

Hooven is scheduled for a formal arraignment Sept. 13 in the Chester County Justice Center in West Chester. He has been in Chester County Prison since his Aug. 28 arrest after failing to post $75,000 cash bail.