Two former halfway house residents accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers May 31 in downtown Sharon’s Bicentennial Park — an incident that prompted public outcry about the house’s location — are headed to Mercer County Common Pleas Court.

John Aaron Morris, 27, and Bryce Dale Southwick, 25, both formerly of Sharon Community Corrections Center, 300 W. State St., Sharon, stipulated their cases to higher court at preliminary hearings Tuesday before District Judge James E. McMahon.

This means they acknowledged that if there had been testimony presented at a hearing, there would have been enough evidence for the judge to hold charges for court.

Southwick faces charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault on a 15-year-old girl on a bench in the park near the Shenango River, police said.

Morris is charged with indecent assault and open lewdness after he made unwanted advances toward a girl, police said.

The girls told police they met the pair a week earlier and talked to them on the phone. They told police the men started following them while they walked downtown on the night of the alleged assault.

The case prompted a protest against the downtown Sharon halfway house for offenders on their way out of the penal system where the men were living at the time. Neither of the men was serving time on sexual offenses.

The center is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and has been in the city for about 30 years.