BEDFORD - Attorneys selected a jury Tuesday for accused Bedford County child rapist Stephen Weaver's trial, scheduled to begin early next week.
Weaver, 55, of Schellsburg faces hundreds of charges, including 41 felonies, after police said he repeatedly assaulted two female relatives when they were as young as 13.
In the Bedford County Courthouse Tuesday, Weaver greeted rows of potential jurors with a wave and a quiet "good morning" before District Attorney Bill Higgins and defense counsel Thomas Crawford, a frequent courtroom rival, spent hours debating jurors' qualifications.
One of the alleged victims, now in her 20s, told police Weaver gave her marijuana and alcohol when her mother wasn't home. What allegedly began as fondling turned to sexual propositions by the time she turned 16, state police said in an affidavit.
Police said Weaver ordered the girl to have sex with her boyfriend first; when she returned home from a date, he was allegedly waiting with a sheepskin rug by a fireplace. He then raped her, police said, in the first of some 20 alleged sexual encounters with her.
"She always knew when it was going to start because he would give her alcohol or weed, or both," police said in an affidavit.
A second alleged victim told police that, starting when she was 13, Weaver began watching her in the shower and discussing sexual fantasies and experiences.
"Things progressively got [worse] and things escalated," police said in an affidavit.
The alleged victim told investigators that when she was 16, Weaver propositioned her for sex.
"I told him repeatedly that I thought that would be wrong," she said, according to a police report. "After about 15 minutes of arguing with him I could tell he was getting upset. This scared me so I gave in."
Interrogated at a police station last year, Weaver offered a different story, saying the girl groped him but nothing else happened.
Police remained unconvinced and filed charges in June 2011.
Weaver later faced charges of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction after a relative allegedly found 10 pipe bombs in his shed. The bomb-making charges aren't included in the abuse case now approaching trial.
President Judge Thomas Ling set Weaver's trial to run Monday through Wednesday next week.
