Mother in perjury case surrenders

Woman granted unsecured bail due to familial status

WEST CHESTER >> The Coatesville woman charged with lying on the witness stand during a child sexual abuse trial involving her special needs daughter has been released on bail after turning herself in to authorities Wednesday.

Magisterial District Judge Mark Bruno set bail at $50,000, but allowed it to be unsecured at the recommendation of the Chester County Pretrial Services Office, or bail agency. The woman is primary caretaker to four children, including two with autism who are in therapy, the agency’s

representative, Aaron Cancro, confirmed, indicating that her family was a factor in why he did not believe a cash bail was warranted.

The woman, whose name is being withheld because of the nature of the case she testified in, did not address the court. She was represented by West Chester attorney Amparito Arriaga, who explained the special circumstances surrounding her client’s family situation to Bruno.

Asking the woman to post bail that she could not afford would be a blow to the family, Arriaga said. “Plucking this woman out of the house, where she is the lifeline for her four children, is not necessary. It is disproportionate” to the sentence she would likely receive should she be convicted of the charges against her, which Arriaga suggested would be probation.

The prosecutor who has been assigned to the case,

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Miller, had asked Bruno to set some monetary bail in the case because of its nature and the possibility that the woman would flee. He acknowledged, however, that her family situation would make things problematic.

“There are some disturbing issues in this case,” Miller told Bruno. “Some (amount) of bail is needed to assure she appears for trial. But I don’t envy your honor’s position, given the defendant’s familial status.”

Charges of felony perjury and false swearing had been filed by Chester County Detectives on Monday, and the woman surrendered at the county Justice Center Wednesday with Arriaga for her preliminary arraignment. She was processed by detectives and released after checking in with the bail agency, which she was ordered by Bruno to report to on a weekly basis or face having her bail revoked.

In 2015, the woman had accused a family friend of sexually assaulting her autistic 4-year-old daughter, a crime for which he was arrested and charged with rape. She then lied at the man’s trial in November about the extent of the relationship she had with him, denying that they had had a four-year-long affair and that he may have been the father of one of her children.

The jury in that case could not reach a verdict, and the judge overseeing

the matter declared a mistrial.

Charges against the man, Mario Serrano of Coatesville, were withdrawn by the prosecution last month because the woman’s false testimony would have made her an unreliable witness if he were to be tried again. The alleged victim, now 8 years old, was deemed unable to testify because of her autism.

Serrano’s attorney, Joel Benecke of West Chester, has suggested that the woman concocted the story of the alleged assault on her daughter in revenge for the news that Serrano was going to break off their extra-marital relationship. Because her daughter was non-verbal at the time, she was the sole witness offered by police and prosecutors in that case.

The charges against the woman do not involve her original accusations about the alleged sexual assault on her daughter. In her comments to Bruno, Arriaga says that the alleged victim maintains hat she was molested by Serrano, and is undergoing therapy for the trauma of that attack, which is supervised by the mother.

Bruno, in setting the unsecured bail, noted that the woman had turned herself in voluntarily and was represented by an attorney. He set a tentative preliminary hearing date of May 23.