Philadelphia man sent to prison for inappropriate communications with Lower Moreland teen

Joseph McGuire, 66, is escorted by a deputy sheriff from a Montgomery County courtroom to begin serving prison term for unlawful communications with a 15-year-old girl. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)

NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man who admitted to having more than 1,000 text messages and phone conversations, many of a sexual nature, with an underage Lower Moreland Township girl will spend at least seven years in prison.

Joseph McGuire, 66, of the 2300 block of North 30th Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 7 to 14 years in a state correctional institution after he pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful contact or communication with a minor, dissemination of explicit sexual materials to a minor and corruption of a minor in connection with incidents that occurred between 2021 and 2022.

Judge Wendy G. Rothstein, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered McGuire to complete 5 years of probation, consecutive to parole, meaning McGuire will be under court supervision for 19 years.

McGuire did not fight a finding by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board, which determined he meets state criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator.

Those classified as predators face more stringent restrictions under state law, including mandatory counseling and a lifetime requirement to report their addresses to state police in order to comply with the state's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan's Law.

The judge ordered McGuire to have no contact with the victim.

McGuire, who was represented by defense lawyer Michael Drossner, apologized to the victim and her family before the sentence was imposed by the judge.

“I deeply apologize. I hope to turn my life around,” McGuire said.

Assistant District Attorney Jediah Grobstein sought the lengthy prison term against McGuire. The victim, supported by several relatives, was in court to observe the sentencing hearing.

“The victim was deeply impacted by going through this experience and I thought it was important for her to see a just resolution here,” Grobstein said afterwards. “It has been a really difficult process to go through for the victim who is coming to terms with what it means to be preyed upon by somebody.

“He preyed on her because she was 15-years-old and she was vulnerable. It was important to the DA's office that (McGuire) be subject to the maximum possible penalty in this particular case. The only thing that was going to be safe for the victim and also for the community at large was for him to spend a substantial portion of the rest of his life behind bars,” Grobstein added.

An investigation began on Jan. 2, 2022, when Lower Moreland police responded to a Levy Lane residence in the Huntingdon Valley section of the township where the mother of a 15-year-old girl reported that an adult male had exchanged sexually explicit text messages with the girl.

“The offender was identified as Joseph McGuire, a 64-year-old male,” Lower Moreland Detective Justin Brommer wrote in the criminal complaint.

The victim's sister reported she had observed a series of sexually explicit text messages between the juvenile and McGuire on the girl's Apple watch. McGuire, according to court papers, once worked at the Philly Skate Zone, Palace Roller Rink, in Philadelphia where the victim spent a lot of her time.

When detectives interviewed the teenage victim, she disclosed that she and McGuire talked about each other's sex lives over the phone and via text message. The pair also communicated via the social media app Snapchat, detectives said.

“Victim reported during one conversation, she was asked to send him images of herself which she did via text message,” Brommer alleged, adding McGuire also sent the victim a picture of his genitals.

The girl also reported that McGuire provided her with marijuana and offered her alcoholic beverages.

When detectives downloaded the contents of the victim's phone they found several screenshot images of sexually explicit text conversations between the juvenile and McGuire.

Detectives also reviewed data from McGuire's cellphone. An analysis of that data showed that McGuire's phone communicated with the victim's phone a total of 1,922 times between August 2021 and January 2022, according to court documents.

“The victim's number was the most frequently communicated number in McGuire's phone,” Brommer alleged.

Specifically, detectives found 641 voice calls, 1,278 text messages and three “other” types of communication between McGuire's phone and the victim's phone.

“Some of the voice calls were over 60 minutes long, with the majority of the calls taking place in the late night or early morning hours,” Brommer alleged.