A North Wales man has been sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to a pair of misdemeanor charges of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old.
Da’Quan McClendon, 27, was sentenced to three years’ probation on Monday by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Wendy Rothstein, as part of a plea agreement that saw more than a dozen other felony and misdemeanor charges dropped in exchange for his plea. Sentencing notes indicate McClendon will be under Sex Offender Supervision, he must undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation and comply with any recommendations, and he is to have no future contact with the victim or children.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt; rather, the plea is an admission that prosecutors likely had enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict on the charges at trial.
When reached for comment, Kate Delano, spokesperson for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, cited legal issues with the case as reason for the plea agreement.
"There were legal issues with the case,” Delano said. "This outcome assures that the defendant will be under Sex Offender Supervision for three years and will not be able to have contact with children, which will protect the public moving forward.”
Investigators with the North Wales Borough Police Department received a vague ChildLine referral in early 2022 stating that a 7- or 8-year-old girl was sexually abused at a home in the borough 10 years prior by a male named "Quan,” according to charging documents. Police said through their investigation and via cooperation from North Penn School District, they were able to identity and locate the victim, as well as determine that "Quan” was Da’Quan McClendon, who was 14-to-16-years-old at the time of the alleged abuse.
The victim met with police for an interview in May 2022, at which point she stated she believed there was a total of five incidents between her and McClendon, but she could only recall three of them enough to discuss with police, the report states. The victim then told investigators on three occasions — once in Philadelphia and twice in North Wales Borough — McClendon allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him while she was between the ages of 7 and 8 years old, according to charging documents.
The victim was known to McClendon and the alleged attacks were not random, police said. The nature of the association between McClendon and the victim is being withheld by this news organization in order to obfuscate the identity of the victim.
McClendon reportedly told the girl not to tell anyone. Court records show the date of offense as January 2012.
Charges were initially filed against McClendon in September 2022, including three felony counts of rape of a child, three felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16 years old, three felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, three felony counts of sexual assault, and three felony counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, along with three misdemeanor counts of indecent assault and one misdemeanor count of simple assault.
Court records show the three felony rape of a child charges were withdrawn by prosecutors during McClendon’s preliminary hearing, and the remaining charges were dropped as part of Monday’s plea agreement.
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