By Stacie Guevara
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Harold Rubin, a former Philadelphia school police officer, late Friday pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two children in 2013.
Rubin is a former Philadelphia charter school resource officer and private security guard who was arrested by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) in February 2020.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the two children Rubin assaulted in 2013 were two boys, 12 and 15 years old. Neither of the boys attended the charter school where Rubin worked.
Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said Rubin met the victims while he was a security officer at a boys’ dance group.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported he was not charged with abusing any students at the Huntington Park Charter School where he worked, but he had worked at Multicultural Academy Charter School until his termination in 2014.
The DAO reported Rubin used his power and position to get access to young boys and sexually abuse them. Rubin’s criminal prosecution was referred to an Indicting Grand Jury in October 2020 because of his alleged history of threatening witnesses and victims.
Rubin pleaded guilty before the Hon. Zachary Shaffer to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with minors, one count of false incrimination and one count of corruption of minors.
The DAO reported the matter was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Sanhita Sen of the DAO Special Investigations Unit.
“Thanks to the dedicated investigative work of my office’s Special Investigations Unit, Howard Rubin will be held accountable for his egregious crimes against vulnerable children. As media outlets including the Philadelphia Inquirer have reported since 2013, Mr. Rubin has a troubling history of similar allegations of which my office and the Philadelphia Police Department are aware,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said.
Krasner appealed, “To those who might have been victimized by this person and have yet to come forward: Please know that you should not feel shame or fear. Come forward, tell us what you know, and help us hold this man responsible for any additional crimes he has committed. We will do everything in our power to protect your privacy and safety, just as we have done for the two victims for whom justice was secured today.”
