A Fayette County man charged with repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl, then threatening to kill her horses or place her in foster care if she ever told anyone about it, will have his case proceed to county court after waiving his preliminary hearing last month.

Joseph Gerald Meyer, of Luzerne Township, waived his preliminary hearing before Judge Courtney Monson on Sept. 26 on 24 different felony and misdemeanor offenses including four counts of rape, five counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, one count of statutory sexual assault, four counts of sexual assault and three counts of aggravated indecent assault, among other charges.

Meyer, 71, is accused of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting the victim at three different locations between February 2008 and April 2010. The assaults are alleged to have begun when the victim was 15 years old and Meyer was in his mid-50s.

The victim told police Meyer began the unwanted sexual relationship one night when he gave her alcohol and then assaulted her in a bedroom at his then-residence in the 300 block of Shreiner Road in Manheim Township despite her repeated protests. The following morning the victim told Meyer she was not okay with what had happened and demanded that it never happen again, she said.

Though the victim told her mother, Children and Youth Services and the police at the time that Meyer had kissed her, she did not divulge the full extent of the assault after Meyer threatened to place her in foster care or kill her horses and turn them to glue if she cooperated with investigators, she told police.

Assaults continued to occur over the next several years after Meyer moved to the 200 block of Birchland Avenue and later the 200 block of Marietta Avenue, both in Mount Joy Borough, the victim said. Meyer also raped the victim in one incident that occurred shortly before her 18th birthday, she said.

At times Meyer would tell the victim the assaults were in order to teach her how to perform certain sexual acts for her future husband, she told police. The victim told investigators she eventually stopped resisting the assaults out of necessity for her survival since she depended on Meyer for her basic needs.

Police began investigating Meyer in June 2025 when the victim reported the years-long sexual abuse to Pennsylvania State Police.

Meyer remains in Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $325,000 bail.

Manheim Township Police Det. Kenneth Smith filed the charges.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ponessa will prosecute the case.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.