Aug 7, 2021 4 min read

GREENSBURG – The former foster mother accused of having a sexual relationship with a Greene County teenage boy over several years pleaded guilty Friday to lesser charges after the lead investigator died recently and the accuser was convicted of assaulting a young child.

Joelle Barozzini, 50, of Greensburg, agreed to misdemeanor charges of child endangerment and corruption of a minor and was immediately sentenced by Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani to serve five years on probation.

Prosecutors agreed to drop felony charges of rape, institutional sex assault, sex assault and child endangerment after the Greensburg police detective who filed the charges, Sgt. John Swank, died of natural causes in September.

In addition, the now 28-year-old Waynesburg man pleaded guilty in May to aggravated assault of a child under the age of 6 and child endangerment, and is awaiting sentencing, according to online court records. Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said that likely would have affected whether a jury believed the accuser if he testified during trial, which was set to begin Monday. The accuser was not present at Friday’s plea hearing and did not offer a written victim impact statement.

“It absolutely affected the calculus of the likelihood of conviction,” Lazar said of the developments in the case. “He was pleased she was willing to take some measure of responsibility.”

Barozzini had no comment during the hearing except to tell the judge the plea was “in my best interest.”

Her defense attorneys agreed that it was a “best interest plea” and that she continues to deny ever engaging in the sexual relationship, which investigators said began in 2009 when the accuser was 16 and living in her family’s Greensburg home.

“She maintains it didn’t happen,” defense attorney William McCabe said.

Barozzini was charged in May 2017 after Greensburg police accused her of having sexual intercourse with the teen hundreds of times from 2009 until he left her care in 2013.

Her arrest sparked controversy when it was revealed a Greene County Children and Youth Services caseworker had informed her supervisors that she suspected Barozzini was involved in a sexual relationship with the teen, only to be reprimanded by her manager. The caseworker told Pressley Ridge Foster Care in February 2012 she was concerned about the situation, but former Greene County CYS Director Dee Dee Blosnich-Gooden called it an “inappropriate comment” about Barozzini, accusing the worker of “gossiping” and requiring her to undergo ethics training.

McCabe said there was nothing to prove the caseworker’s allegation back in 2012.

“That was a rumor,” McCabe said Friday. “There was no evidence of it.”

But the charges against Barozzini raised questions at the time about how alleged child abuse accusations were reported within the Greene County CYS.

Blosnich-Gooden left her position as CYS director in Greene County in March 2013 to take a job as deputy director of Washington County CYS. Blosnich-Gooden resigned from her position in Washington County two days after Barozzini was charged in May 2017 and it became public that she had reprimanded the caseworker. Blosnich-Gooden briefly returned to the position as a temporary hire.

Greensburg police said Barozzini first made sexual advances to the boy during a party she was hosting at her house in 2009. Investigators said they had sexual intercourse for several years afterward. The accuser was under Greene CYS care until October 2010, when the contract ended, and then was placed in the custody of Barozzini until he turned 18, although the relationship allegedly continued afterward, according to court documents.

But Barozzini’s defense attorney said the accuser only came forward in 2017 after he had been charged with assaulting the young child.

In addition to probation, Feliciani order her to pay court fees and have no contact with minors for five years, except for her children. The sentence also effectively bars her from acting as a foster mother again.

“She feels like she can move on with her life,” McCabe said.