Volunteer Fire Chief Facing Child Molestation Charges

WHITE OAK (KDKA) -- 36-year old Sean Leffard is Chief of the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Company in White Oak. Leffard has been arrested by Allegheny County Police in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy.

Investigators said the boy told them the abuse started when he was 12. According to detectives, some of the crimes occurred at the Leffard family home on Latrobe Street in Liberty Borough.

Reaction to his arrest at the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Co. was one of shock. Patrick Schmidt, the President of the Rainbow Fire Company, told KDKA
"We were just made aware of the allegations, we're just as stunned as anybody, as the Fire Company, we can't comment, because the members don't know about it."

Police say Leffard abused the boy numerous times, including at homes in White Oak, and in Bridgeville, at a trailer in Erie, at a camp in Templeton, Armstrong County, and in a tent when the two went camping in Buckhannon, West Virginia.

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The criminal complaint states Leffard bought the boy gifts over the years, including a fishing boat and an ATV. The victim said he recently told his parents that he had been molested over a four year period.

Once, the boy's mother told Leffard to stop "groping" her son when she witnessed the inappropriate touching.

The teenager is listed as the sole beneficiary in Leffard's will.

Schmidt said "the Rainbow Volunteer Fire Co. trusts in the judicial system, we'll back them 100 percent. It's their job to make the charges stick, or to dispense of them."