LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A former Lancaster County woman who spent years on the run after being charged with the sexual abuse of a girl will serve up to 12 years in prison after finally being sentenced, the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office said Thursday.
Nicole Fritchlee will serve 5¼ to 12 years in prison regarding four charges, including felony counts of sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor, the Lancaster DA's Office said.
Fritchlee was charged in 2015, but did not appear for her preliminary hearing or preliminary arraignment at that time. The preliminary hearing was held in her absence, the DA's Office said.
Instead, Fritchlee went on the run after West Hempfield Township Police charged her, according to prosecutors.
She was arrested in New Jersey in 2018 for a separate domestic violence incident, but gave police a false name, the DA's Office said. Police were eventually able to determine her real identity.
According to prosecutors, Fritchlee and her husband at the time, Jason Fritchlee, sexually abused a girl from 2006 to 2008 in a West Hempfield Township home. The abuse began when the victim was seven years old, assistant district attorney Fritz Haverstick said at a video conference hearing last week.
Haverstick said said Fritchlee “delayed justice” by fleeing from police, and that it was “despicable” that she not only abused the girl herself, but also refused to act when Jason Fritchlee also abused the girl.
Lancaster County Judge Dennis Reinaker ordered sentence following Fritchlee’s guilty plea to the four charges.
Jason Fritchlee, who the abused the girl multiple times, is serving a state prison sentence for the Lancaster County case and a conviction in York County, prosecutors say.
At sentencing, Reinaker stopped Nicole Fritchlee multiple times from talking to the victim, according to prosecutors.
