Joseph Betz

A West Sunbury man charged with receiving stolen property and hiding a runaway boy from authorities pleaded to the charges in Butler County court on Monday.

Joseph A. Betz, 65, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor interference with the custody of a committed person, and no contest to misdemeanor receiving stolen property before Judge William Shaffer.

The plea agreement calls for a sentence of time served to 18 months in Butler County Prison, followed by two years of county probation, and to pay restitution, fines and court costs.

Betz is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 11. Betz initially was charged with felony interference with the custody of a child after an incident between June 10 and Dec. 3, 2016, in Cherry Township.

State police filed the charge after Betz was accused of harboring a then 16-year-old boy who reportedly ran away from his Washington County home in June.

Troopers found the teenager on June 7, hiding in a bedroom closet at Betz's house on Findlay Road, police said.

The boy was turned over to Mercer County Children and Youth Services and placed at the Keystone Charter School in West Salem Township, but ran away from that facility soon after.

At the end of November, Betz traveled with one or two co-workers to Florida, taking the teen with him. While there, according to witnesses, Betz got into an argument with one of the other men and returned home.

Police on Dec. 2 arrested Betz in Lawrence County. Authorities found the boy with the other men at a hotel in Osceola County, Fla.

Osceola County Sheriff's deputies briefly spoke to the boy, who denied he had been abused by the men. Both men found with the boy in Florida were released and have not been charged with any crimes.

Betz was held on $250,000 bond, which was posted Jan. 19.

Betz also was later charged in an unrelated case with two felony counts and one misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property after the search of Betz' home on Dec. 9, 2016, in relation to the previous case turned up items stolen during a burglary in Center Township in September 2016. The items included two shotguns and a 40-inch television.

The plea which Betz entered states that he was in possession of a PlayStation game system valued at $500, two games valued at $100 and a TV valued at $500.