PA Cop Charged With Raping 4 Additional Women While On Duty

WILKES BARRE, PA — Four more individuals have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse against a Pennsylvania police officer, charged earlier this year with raping women while on duty, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office announced this week.

Wilkes Barre cop Robert Collins, 53, of Mountain Top, was originally arrested and charged back in Jan. 2019 in connection to four separate cases. In all four cases, Collins was on duty, operating a police vehicle and wearing a uniform, and threatened the women not to report the crimes, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

Those cases occurred between Aug. 2013 and Dec. 2014. He now faces charges for four new cases, which stretch from the summer of 2006 to May 2016.

In one of the newly alleged crimes, Collins approached a woman as she was walking down the street and confiscated her prescription medication, authorities said. He then coerced her into performing oral sex to get her medicine back, according to the allegation.

>>PA Police Officer Charged With Raping Women While On Duty

Another woman was repeatedly handcuffed and driven in Collins' police vehicle to a secluded area, where he raped her, authorities said.

When he stopped and searched a third woman and found heroin, he forced her to perform oral sex, this time so the woman could avoid arrest, according to the Attorney General's Office. And a fourth victim was coerced into oral sex when Collins told her he could make her traffic fines go away.

"The defendant served in a position of public trust, but he is charged with abusing his power to assault and intimidate his victims," Shapiro said in a statement. "His victims report that he targeted them when they were at their most vulnerable and coerced them into sex acts or raped them. My Office will investigate and prosecute sexual assault offenders where we find them—without fear or favor.”

All told, Collins now faced eight counts of rape, three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, four counts of witness intimidation, false imprisonment, and related charges.

The investigation into Collins remains ongoing. Anyone with additional information to report related to the investigation should call the Pennsylvania State Police Wyoming Barracks at 570-697-2000.