Almost four years after being convicted and sentenced for indecently assaulting a preteen boy in February 2011 in Tamaqua, Michael F. Ortlip headed to state prison Tuesday after being caught in Virginia.
Ortlip, 28, of Pottsville, returned Tuesday to Schuylkill County Court just long enough for Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin to order him committed to a state correctional institution.
Schuylkill County law enforcement authorities had hunted for Ortlip since July 12, 2012, the day Dolbin sentenced him, in accordance with the recommendation of prosecutors, to serve one to two years in a state correctional institution, plus an additional three years on probation.
Dolbin also ruled that, although Ortlip was not a sexually violent predator, he would be subject to Megan’s Law sanctions for 10 years once he is released from prison.
The Megan’s Law sanctions to which Ortlip will be subject include requirements that he report his address, employment and educational statuses, and any change in them, to state police for 10 years after he leaves prison. Any failure to comply with those sanctions is a crime in itself and could result in further prosecution.
Dolbin had presided over Ortlip’s one-day trial on April 9, 2012, in which a jury found him guilty of three counts of indecent assault and one of corruption of minors.
Tamaqua police charged Ortlip with assaulting the victim, a 10-year-old boy, on Feb. 19, 2011, in the borough.
Ortlip did not appear for either his trial or his sentencing, leading to the manhunt that concluded only with his capture in Norfolk, Virginia. He had been featured on July 29, 2012, in this newspaper in an article asking for the public’s help in catching him and other fugitives.
Megan’s Law was enacted in Pennsylvania, numerous other states and at the federal level following the 1994 murder of Megan Nicole Kanka, 7, of Hamilton Township, Mercer County, N.J.
Jesse Timmendequas, Kanka’s killer, was a convicted sex offender and one of the girl’s neighbors. He is serving a life sentence following then-New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s commutation of his death sentence after that state abolished its death penalty.