A case was opened in 2012, when a 12-year-old girl in Pennsylvania told her substitute teacher that a man had sexually assaulted her for years, and the teacher then told the police, according to a statement from the state attorney general’s office.

But seven more years passed before anyone was criminally charged — and one of the men who the girl said had abused her became a police chief.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh Shapiro, announced that Gregory Wagner, 28, and Brent Getz, 27, had been arrested on several charges, including child rape and aggravated indecent assault.

Both men are of Lehighton, Pa., and Mr. Getz was the chief of police in the neighboring borough of Weissport.

“This young girl was forced to face not one abuser, but two, who were working together, for seven years,” Mr. Shapiro said in a recorded statement. “Thank you to this survivor in this case, who bravely shared her truth and will bring her abusers to justice.”

Weissport is a small borough in Carbon County on the eastern side of the state, nestled between the Lehigh Canal and the Lehigh River. It is home to about 400 people. Mr. Getz was hired as a part-time officer for Weissport in 2017 and promoted to the chief of police in February, according to local news reports. The department is tiny, consisting of just one officer as recently as 2016.

It is unclear how many are on the force now. Neither the mayor nor the police department immediately responded to requests for comment on Wednesday evening, and borough council members could not be reached.

When the girl first reported the abuse to her teacher in 2012, she said she had been abused by Mr. Wagner, who was then 22, multiple times, according to the attorney general’s statement. The teacher went to the Franklin Township Police Department, which opened an investigation.

But for reasons that remain unclear, no charges were filed at the time. The Franklin Township police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.

About three years later, the case was reassigned, and the police prepared a criminal complaint against Mr. Wagner. But a magisterial district judge dismissed the complaint because of a paperwork error, the attorney general’s statement said.

The charges were not refiled. Three more years passed.

In August 2018, another Franklin Township officer looked at the case and interviewed the victim again. She then said that Mr. Getz, too, had sexually assaulted her.

“The victim revealed that, consistent with her prior disclosures and examinations, from age 4 to 11 she was orally, vaginally and anally raped by Wagner,” the statement from the attorney general said. “She reported that Getz would also join in these assaults. Additionally, she said that Wagner often made her watch pornography with him, which she recalled depicted teenagers.”

On Monday, Mr. Wagner’s residence was searched by the authorities, who found electronic devices with search histories indicative of child pornography, the attorney general’s office said. Mr. Wagner then admitted to sexually abusing the victim for years and said that Mr. Getz had abused her, too, the office said.

It was unclear whether the men had been appointed lawyers on Wednesday.

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