One of the four men accused of sex crimes involving a 13-year-old boy from Tamaqua entered a guilty plea Wednesday in Schuylkill County Court.

In a negotiated plea, Charles Raymond Joy, 59, of Port Carbon, pleaded guilty to indecent exposure and indecent assault of a person less than 16, said Assistant District Attorney Michael Stine. Joy had also been charged with statutory sexual assault, indecent sexual intercourse and corruption of minors; those charges were dropped.

President Judge William E. Baldwin sentenced Joy to 3 to 23 months on the indecent exposure charge, and three years on probation, to run consecutively to the prison sentence. Joy also got 3 years on probation on the indecent assault charge, to run concurrently with the other probation term.

“We didn’t want to put the victim through a trial and with the consent of the victim’s family, we spared him (the victim) having to testify,” Stine said. “It’s important to note that with the guilty plea to those charges, Joy will have 25 years of Meghan’s Law registration.”

Joy is also a first-time offender, although he does have a conviction for selling/furnishing liquor to minors from 1995.

The arrests of the four men began with the arrest of Dale Schimpf, 71, of Frackville, in February 2019. Schimpf is a music educator at Nativity B.V.M. School, Pottsville. Tamaqua Police Corporal Thomas Rogers investigated that case, and through that investigation other participants came to light — Matthew Delgado, 28, and Brad Daniel Murphy, 26, both of Tamaqua, and Joy. Delgado, Murphy and Joy were subsequently arrested on felony counts of statutory sexual assault of a victim between the ages of 11 and 16, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of someone less than 16; along with misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person less than 16. The defendants contacted the victim through a cellphone dating app called Grindr.

Schimpf and Delgado remained incarcerated in Schuylkill County Prison. Schimpf successfully had his bail conditions changed from $100,000 straight cash to 10 percent of $100,000; but he has been unable to post bail. Delgado’s bail is set at $50,000 cash. Murphy’s bail was set at $50,000 straight cash which he posted March 15. No date has been set for pretrial conferences for the three men.

Joy was represented by Attorney Joseph Nahas of Frackville. Delgado is represented by public defender William Burke; Murphy and Schimpf are defended by attorney Christine Holman, a former District Attorney for Schuylkill County.