Crime & Safety

Matthew Bendel Will Face Jury Trial in Baldwin Child-Rape Case

Trial scheduled to start in October.

Matthew Bendel, 41, whom  police say sexually assaulted 12- and 13-year-old girls, will face a jury trial beginning on Oct. 4, it was announced after a pre-trial conference on Thursday.

A spokesman for the said that Bendel, formerly a Baldwin resident, had been living in Van Nuys, CA, since the fall of 2010 but that the crimes were committed against two Baldwin girls.

The girls, who are friends, came to Baldwin police with their accusations in early March, this year, the spokesman said.

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Bendel's docket sheet with the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas lists rape and disseminating child pornography among his charges and reveals that the crimes may have began sometime in 2004.

Police say that Bendel videotaped and took photographs of himself and one of the girls having sex.

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