WILLIAMSPORT — Problems with accuser and Williamsport police agent could delay start of investigation Lycoming County Sexual misconduct case of a suspended Williamsport Area High School principal.

One of the motions filed Wednesday on behalf of Roger W. Freed asks for a continuation of the case if the issues cannot be resolved before Nov. 5, when the three-day trial is scheduled to begin. The jury had already been selected.

Williamsport police asked Judge Eric R. Linhardt to cancel the subpoena for Agent Laura Kitko, whom Freed wanted to testify about in his April 25, 2020, interview with the victim.

His interview was in an unrelated case that included rape of a child and involuntary sexual intercourse with a minor, among the charges against the now-adult man.

Kitko will not be able to attend the hearing because he will have major surgery next Tuesday and will be out of action for several weeks.

Defense attorney Leonard Gryskewicz Jr. argues that because the man informed him that the charges in the rape case were for a two-year period ending in January 2020, he would have to testify unless there was a stipulation.

The defense alleges the man used his allegations against Freed, which span the same period, to provide an alibi in the rape case.

Linhardt will also have to decide whether telling jurors the time frame of the rape charges would violate district Judge Nancy L. Butts’ order, which was approved by the Supreme Court panel.

Butts ruled that in the case in which former Williamsport high school English teacher Michelle L. Pulizzi was the victim, jurors could have been told the time, place of the crime and possible punishment, but were given no details about the charges.

Pulizzi did not appear in court, but He did not object to the charge of harassment through communication. He was charged with institutional sexual assault and criminal solicitation for having sexual intercourse with a student.

Freed’s defense is also asking the court for permission to introduce the contents of a Sept. 11, 2022 phone call he had with the lead investigator, state trooper Matthew Miller.

The man claimed his first sexual encounter with Freed took place outside Williamsport when he was 16, and that the educator later lightly penetrated his anus during a trip to Pittsburgh.

Court approval will be required because the rape shield law generally prohibits acknowledgment of a victim’s past sexual behavior.

Gryskewicz explained that he wanted to use this information to question the victim’s credibility because what he told Miller about anal penetration contradicted the questions he asked Freed in text messages years later.

Freed, 36, of Cogan Station, is accused of performing oral sex on a male student more than 30 times during a seven-year period ending in 2022.

Defense agrees the two had a sexual relationship but claims that this occurred after the man graduated and became an adult and that it would not be a crime. Freed was not married at the time.

He was released during an interview with state police on June 21, the search warrant affidavit states. The sexual relationship with the student lasted more than seven years.

Freed, a former ninth-grade principal, is charged with 30 counts of sexual intercourse with a student and one count each of aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and corruption of a minor.

He was released on $75,000 unsecured bail and suspended without pay by the school district.