Judge Orders Megan’s Law Offender To Formal Arraignment

After hearing the testimony of a 16-year-old girl who said that a registered Megan’s Law offender asked her for oral sex after giving her a cell phone, Judge Robert Burke on Thursday ordered Daniel Reynolds-Demchur to a formal arraignment hearing on May 26.

Reynolds-Demchur entered the District Court 32-1-25 on West Chester Pike, Havertown, on Thursday morning in shackles and wearing a green prison jumpsuit.

He has been in prison , despite rumors that allegedly appeared on Facebook stating that law enforcement officials gave him an early release, according to 2nd Ward Commissioner Mario Oliva who attended the preliminary hearing.

The girl, who lives in Haverford Township, testified that she met Reynolds-Demchur at an April 2nd party at a friend’s house. 

“I didn’t believe him at first because he looks a lot younger than he actually is,” she recalled during her testimony when she stated that Reynolds-Demchur told her he was 21. He recently just turned 22.

During her testimony, she told the court, including Delaware County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Boogay who was trying the case, that Reynolds-Demchur told her he was attracted to her and immediately asked her age when she spoke to him for about five minutes at the party before his family came to pick him up.

The next day, the girl testified that Reynolds-Demchur sent a friend request on Facebook, which defense lawyer Joseph Ratasiewicz objected because he wanted to know the specifics of a friend request and how she knew it was the defendant.

She clarified that a Facbook friend request has the person’s name, in this case “Danny Reynolds,” and a picture of the person sending the friend request.

She testified that she accepted his Facebook friend request and gave him her house number, which according to her he called soon after receiving it.

She told the court that he repeatedly called her house phone that day. She said that three phone numbers showed up on her house phone’s caller ID, which she testified the numbers were attributed to: Danny Reynolds, Joann Demchur and a blocked number.

She said she only picked up one of the calls.

“He said that he was so drunk at the party,” she testified but said most of the conversation was “awkward silence.”

After the ruling, Reynolds-Demchur’s aunt, Lynda McVey told the Haverford-Havertown Patch that the girl was lying. 

“My nephew wasn’t drunk at the party,” she said. Before the case started, McVey said that he was innocent of the charges against him.

But during cross-examination, the girl did testify that Reynolds-Demchur seemed sober when he met her at the party. She did admit she had an alcoholic drink later at the party once the defendant left.

The girl continued her testimony that Reynolds-Demchur kept sending her Facebook messages, but she ignored them until a friend told her that one of Reynolds-Demchur's messages stated that he bought her a Blackberry cell phone as a gift.

During cross-examination, she admitted that she is not aware of any printed copies of the alleged messages that Reynolds-Demchur may have sent her.

But on Wednesday, April 6, she met him at Sacred Heart and he gave her the phone, she testified, stating that Reynolds-Demchur and even an older relative that she took to be his grandmother asked her to go home with them and see a Phillies game, which she declined. 

The following day, Reynolds-Demchur allegedly started sending text messages, with some of them being sexual, to her new cell phone, the girl stated.

“He said, ‘Can you give me like a blow job …?’ I was like, ‘uh maybe’ because I was just answering him,” she testified. “It liked creeped me out a little bit.”

She testified that Reynolds-Demchur texted her he shaved his genitals and would send her a picture of his penis, which she said she told him not to do as she was in school at the time.

On Thursday, April 7, she was supposed to meet him at the Sacred Heart Church to pick up a charger for the cell phone, but before she went she testified that she discovered that Reynolds-Demchur was on the Megan’s Law website. 

She said she confronted him about this by texting him and she stated that at first he denied it, but eventually confirmed it.

At that point she threw her Blackberry cell phone on the ground, the girl testified. The police later retrieved the cell phone.

The two were supposed to meet at the church, but she testified that she did not tell him when she would be there to meet him. She testified that she was afraid when she walked by the church and saw Reynolds-Demchur there on his cell phone.

“I was scared. My heart dropped,” she said on the stand.

She testified that she confronted Reynold-Demchur about being on the Megan’s Law website and stated that she grabbed his arm and noticed that no one was on the cell phone. He then ran away from her, she said.

During cross-examination, one of the questions Ratasiewicz asked was what the girl wore when she met Reynolds-Demchur the first time at the church. She replied that she did not remember what she wore, only that she may have had a sweatshirt on and that she did not wear makeup.

The girl also stated that she did not tell Reynold-Demchur’s relative her age.

Reynolds-Demchur did not take the stand.

After hearing the girl’s testimony, Burke said that the commonwealth met its burden of proof and ordered Reynolds-Demchur to a formal arraignment hearing on May 26 at the Delaware County Court House in Media.

Reynolds-Demchur is charged with contact with a minor, obscene and other sexual materials and performances, stalking and harassment.

Reynolds-Demchur had previous convictions of being a sex offender since becoming an adult. On Feb. 25, 2008, he lured “a child into a motor vehicle or structure,” according to the Megan’s Law website. 

After the ruling, Ratasiewicz said that he had no comment and Reynolds-Demchur said he had nothing to add when asked for a comment as he was being led into a state patrol car.