Jeffrey Thomas case: Will his own words mean criminal contempt findings?
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General filed a motion to hold suspended Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas, who is facing a trial involving a sexual assault allegation in September, in criminal contempt of court Thursday afternoon.
"This is another attempt by the defendant to 'poison the well,' i.e. infect the prospective jury pool with wild conspiracy theories in the hope that these scurrilous accusations will take hold to his benefit," wrote Patrick Schulte and Tomm Mutschler, senior deputy attorney generals, who are prosecutors in the Thomas case.
Thomas' defense team responded in a motion by stating "... the government's contention that the defendant be held in criminal contempt is not only outrageous, but it serves no other purpose but to further place the defendant in a bad light and an attempt to score their own 'points' by attracting more attention to this issue and magnifying it to the public at large as they have done throughout this entire prosecution."
In Thursday's Daily American, Thomas is quoted in an article about civil asset forfeiture in Somerset County as saying he faces a "bogus prosecution" from the attorney general's office. Thomas also said he is being "retaliated against for arresting the son of a county commissioner who's friends with the former Somerset County District Attorney Lisa Lazzari-Strasiser." She now leads the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Attorney General's Office.
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On April 1, Senior Judge Timothy Creany, who is presiding over Thomas' case, issued an order in response to "extrajudicial statements" about the state's prosecution arm. In the order, Creany wrote, "all persons assisting or associated with Counsel for the defendant, including the defendant himself, are precluded from making extrajudicial statements" prohibited by the state's Rules of Professional Conduct.
According to Schulte and Mutschler in the court document, Thomas' comments in the article are a "willful violation of a direct, clear and specific order made by this Honorable Court" and by doing so Thomas "has challenged the dignity of this Honorable Court such that the Court must assert its criminal contempt powers."
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Thomas was found in violation of his probation and is now wearing an electronic monitor ankle bracelet and is confined to his parents home and his father's auto garage on work release.
In response to the motion filed by the attorney general, Thomas' defense team of Ryan Tutera and Eric Lurie, both of Pittsburgh, filed at the Somerset County Clerk of Courts Thursday night, claim that the Office of the Attorney General's motion is "a selective prosecution."
"The sum and substance of the quote published in the June 2, 2022, article pertains to Thomas' record of how he tackled the drug problem in Somerset County while he was in office and the campaign platform he used to defeat the prior District Attorney Lisa Lazzari-Strasiser," according to Thomas' defense team.
Thomas did "in fact conduct a major drug arrest of Terrell Robison Ickes, the son of Somerset County Commissioner, Pamela Tokar-Ickes. The prosecution was later adopted by the United States Attorney's Office," they wrote.
The attorney general pointed out in its motion that the article linked to a prior one that had similar claims by Thomas prior to Creany's order about making no extrajudicial statements about the case.
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"Further, the defendant has no editorial control over the links to other articles that the news media uses to sensationalize this or any other story it covers," according to Tutera and Lurie.
The defense team asked Creany to permit Thomas to be heard on the attorney general's motion to hold him in criminal contempt at his June 16 pre-trial motions hearing.
The charges
Thomas is accused of entering an adult acquaintance's home on the evening of Sept. 18 without permission and remaining in the residence even after being told to leave. Police said he sexually and physically assaulted the woman.
On Sept. 22, charges of sexual assault, indecent aggravated assault, indecent assault, strangulation, simple assault and criminal trespass were brought against Thomas.
He had been free after making his $5,000 bond in that case. The bond stipulated he was to have no contact with the woman or any person on the witness list by both parties in the case.
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After an April 29 hearing, Thomas' bond in the sexual assault case was revoked by Creany based on a motion from the attorney general's office that called Thomas a danger to the community after he was charged with harassment and two traffic summaries for allegedly ramming his truck into a vehicle driven by a witness in the sex assault case against Thomas. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of March 31.
Follow Judy D.J. Ellich on Twitter at @dajudye.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Will Somerset DA Jeffrey Thomas' own words mean criminal contempt findings?
