May 23—WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne County jury took its time Wednesday before convicting Jack P. Covert II of possessing child sexual abuse material.
The jury deliberated for about six hours before reaching a verdict convicting Covert, 65, formerly of Second Street, Dallas Township, of six counts of child pornography and a single count of criminal use of a communication device.
Covert faced a one-day trial before Judge David W. Lupas.
Dallas Township police and Luzerne County detectives charged Covert in February 2021 after serving a search warrant on his home as part of an investigation into the downloading of child sexual abuse materials.
Assistant District Attorney Carly Levandoski, who prosecuted the case, told the jury that 19 electronic devices, including computer towers and laptops, were seized from Covert’s home.
Those electronic devices, Levandoski said, were forensically analyzed at the Pennsylvania State Police Computer Crime Lab.
County Detective Sergeant Charles Balogh said two of the devices contained images of stored child sexual abuse material.
Covert’s attorney, Ellen Granahan, told the jury that other people lived in the home and suggested the obscene materials belonged to them.
Detective Robert Odgers of the Dallas Township Police Department said Covert’s nickname, “Jay,” was used to download sexual images of children.
Lupas scheduled Covert to be sentenced on August 15.
Covert has been charged several times since 2021 with child abuse involving multiple girls.
Covert recently pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting three girls, was found guilty by a previous jury of sexually assaulting a fourth girl, and will go on trial in June on charges that he sexually assaulted a fifth girl.
Court records show Covert was convicted in September 2000 of sexually assaulting a then 14-year-old girl at a tattoo studio he owned on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre. He appealed the conviction and was granted a new trial by the Pennsylvania Superior. The court, which ruled that then-Judge Mark Ciavarella was wrong to address the jury outside the presence of Covert’s attorney, prevented certain evidence from being presented.
When he was granted a new trial, Covert instead pleaded guilty to indecent assault to avoid a second trial. He was sentenced to three months in the county correctional facility.
