Former child care volunteer waives hearing on corruption of minors charges

A former child-care volunteer faces arraignment next month on child corruption charges after he waived his preliminary hearing Friday in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Reid Reading, 82, was charged in June with two counts of corruption of minors, though a detective on the case has said the investigation is still open and ongoing.

Formal arraignment is set for Oct. 24. Reading, of Squirrel Hill, declined to comment as he left court.

Reading spent five years volunteering with the now-closed Kentucky Avenue Child Care in Shadyside, where he worked with children of pre-school age through first grade, police said. Part of his volunteer work involved going to the homes of children from the center to read to them.

The charges stem from an August 2018 incident in which Reading was volunteering at the home of a woman and her three children – an infant and two daughters, aged 6 and 8 at the time, police said. The woman told police she left the room to put the infant down for a nap and, when she returned, the 6-year-old was putting her clothes back on, according to the criminal complaint against Reading.

The child told her mother that Reading had asked her to take her clothes off, saying he wanted to “see everything,” according to the criminal complaint filed June 4. Her 8-year-old sister corroborated the incident, police said.

Police said Reading violated a no-contact order with the family after the alleged incident.

Public Safety spokesman Chris Togneri said at the time charges were filed that police believe Reading victimized other children. He was barred from volunteering at the child-care center after he was seen “kissing a girl inappropriately,” Togneri said.