Columbia man charged with sexual assault from a decade ago

Todd Michael Lingafelt Jr.

A Columbia man who used social media to meet a girl nearly 11 years ago was recently charged with rape and assault, two months after a similar case against him moved to court, according to online court documents.

Todd Michael Lingafelt Jr., 25, of the 800 block of Barber Street, was charged on Feb. 5 for the rape that happened in July of 2009, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Police said that Lingafelt met a girl – 14 years-old at the time – on the website MyYearbook.com and the two met at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia before going to the entrance of the Columbia High School and then into a wooded area along Laurel Hill Road, where the incident allegedly occurred.

Lingafelt was arrested and taken to the Lancaster County Prison on Feb. 7, 2020.

Later that day, via a bondsman, Lingafelt posted his $100,000 bail and is free, according to online court dockets.

It is unclear why, exactly, he was charged more than a decade later, but Brett Hambright, spokesperson for the Lancaster County District Attorney's office, said that recent developments prompted the charges. 

Calls to Columbia police chief Jack Brommer and Lingafelt's current lawyer, listed on court documents, were not returned as of Friday afternoon. 

This isn't the first time Lingafelt has been charged with sexual assault. In March 2019, Lingafelt was charged for sexually assaulting a woman in August of 2010, leaving scars on her chest from his fingernails, according to Lancaster city police. She came to police in February 2019.

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