A department store employee found guilty of masturbating while holding a female co-worker’s sandwich has failed to convince a state appeals court panel he was unjustly convicted of indecent assault.

Instead, the Superior Court in an opinion by Judge Mary P. Murray upheld Anthony S. Maneval’s convictions for the August 2016 incident at a Bon-Ton in Snyder County. Maneval, 36, of Selinsgrove, was sentenced by county Judge Michael H. Sholley to 3 to 12 months in prison, plus 4 years of probation.

According to Murray’s opinion, the case hinged on a surveillance camera video shot in the store’s stock room. The store’s human resources manager testified that film showed Maneval masturbating while holding the unwrapped sandwich and a pair of pink women’s shorts.

That video showed Maneval press the sandwich against his body, then rewrap it, the HR official testified. Soon afterward, the other employee ate the sandwich, Murray noted. The co-worker testified during Maneval’s nonjury trial that she didn’t know what Maneval had done to it.

A state trooper testified that Maneval admitted to masturbating at work. Maneval also conceded that a black light would have revealed traces of semen on his hands when he was touching the sandwich, the officer said.

Maneval didn’t testify or present any evidence at his trial, but did seek dismissal of the case, arguing there was no evidence of indecent contact, Murray noted. He also insisted Sholley shouldn’t have allowed the video to be admitted as evidence.

“It is undisputed that (Maneval) did not deny his behavior,” Murray wrote in rejecting Maneval’s appeal. He “admitted to police that he masturbated with the pink shorts and the sandwich and he had seminal fluid on his hand when he rewrapped the sandwich that later would be eaten.”

Therefore, Murray found, Sholley’s conviction of Maneval “would not shock one’s sense of justice.”