Ward declared 'not guilty' on one sex count

Wharton Marketing Professor Scott Ward walked out of the Montgomery County Courthouse without a jail sentence on Monday, following his second trial for sex-related charges. Ward was tried in connection with three sex-related offenses -- criminal attempt to commit involuntary sexual intercourse, criminal attempt to commit prostitution and criminal attempt to corrupt minors. After more than nine hours of deliberations, the jury announced that they had found Ward not guilty on the first charge, but remined deadlocked on the two other counts. Ward told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he was disappointed the jury was hung on the other charges, but was confident he would be completely acquitted. The decision came only days after Judge William Nicholas threw out two other sex-related charges, saying the prosecution did not have enough evidence to prove Ward had either promoted prostitution or solicited involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Ward was arrested in November of 1993 when he allegedly invited an undercover state trooper who was posing as a 15-year-old boy to spend a night in his Ardmore home -- offering the trooper "money and other things." In November of 1995, Ward was acquitted of criminal charges after he was accused of paying a 13-year-old Kensington boy to have sex with him. A key piece of evidence in the case is an October 1993 tape of a conversation between Ward and the state trooper in the professor's home. According to court documents, Ward acted as was expected in the presence of the undercover trooper. "Ward stated that he was bisexual and that he liked sex," court documents say. "Ward asked if [the trooper] liked sex." The undercover trooper wore a small wire transmitter, designed to tape the conversation between the two. However, due to a faulty setup, investigators say they failed to obtain a clear recording of the conversation. The meeting was set up by young, convicted felon, Alan Georigi, who agreed to help police with the sting operation in order to possibly lessen his own sentence. Georigi told authorities that he had procured young, clean-cut boys from broken homes for Ward in an exchange for cash. A second tape of a conversation in which Georigi arranged a meeting between Ward and the undercover trooper received a great deal of attention from jurors.

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