"Chuckles" The Police Clown Accused Of Mollesting 4-Year-Old Girls

[matcom]

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Police officer Michael Fernsler dressed up as Chuckles the police clown and performed before children.

He was a foster parent who, police said, admitted to them that he was seeking counseling because he was addicted to pornography.

He positioned himself to be near children and that's why, authorities said, they're worried.

Swatara Twp. police charged him with molesting two 4-year-old girls in the township home of their foster parents, Detective Darrell Reider said last night.

Fernsler, 33, of the 3700 block of Orrstown Road, Franklin County, was arrested Friday at his job at Shippensburg University, Reider said. He was brought back to Dauphin County where he was arraigned at night court on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, corruption of minors, indecent assault, indecent exposure and unlawful contact with a minor.

Reider said the molestation investigation against Fernsler doesn't stop with this arrest.

"The reason we put this information out so quickly was to make sure we don't have any other victims anywhere," Reider said.

On March 23, Swatara Twp. police received a report from a township resident that her two foster children had been molested by a friend of the family, Reider said. The girls were taken to Harrisburg Hospital, where they were examined. The evidence was sent to the state police crime lab.

Reider said the state police crime lab corroborated the girls' stories.

Fernsler was arrested Friday, his day off, at the Shippensburg University police station, where he worked for less than a year, university spokesman Pete Gigliotti said.

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