Long-time burglary suspects want lowered bail

WEST CHESTER » A Common Pleas judge has promised to decide whether or not to reduce the bail of an Avondale man who has been in Chester County Prison for more than three years awaiting trial on a series of home burglaries — an unusually long period of time, but one not entirely outside the blame of the defendant.

Christopher Michael Hersh appeared before Judge Jeffery Sommer on Friday with his newest attorney to argue that he deserved to have nominal bail so that he could leave the prison in which he has been held since his arrest in December 2016 and return to the concrete pouring job he says is waiting for him in Lancaster County.

The motion to reduce Hersh’s $55,000 bail was strenuously contested by the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Alexis Shaw, who argued that Hersh remains a danger to the community because he had no true means of supporting himself beyond burglarizing homes in the area. The job he said he could return to, she suggested, was one he had been fired from before the string of burglaries he is alleged to have committee with his estranged wife and another man.

“He didn’t have any money then because he lost his job, so he went driving around picking houses (to break into) when it looked like no one was home,” Shaw said. He is currently charged with five counts of burglary, one count of

attempted burglary, and numerous counts of theft, receiving stolen property, and conspiracy.

Hersh’s attorney, Phillip Simon of Glen Mills, told Sommer that his client had been actively trying to get his case heard, but had been rebuffed in the past by court-appointed attorneys who would not pursue the various motions for dismissal he filed on his own behalf. Simon is Hersh’s fifth attorney since his arrest.

“He has been fighting for his rights,” Simon said as Hersh stood by, listening. “Because other counsel wouldn’t listen to him should not be (held) against him.”

Criminal defendants are allowed by law nominal bail — say $1 — when they have been held in custody for more than 180 days. But if the person awaiting trial in prison has continued the case repeatedly from one trial session to the next, as Hersh has, the time between those dates does not count against the bail “clock.” Even if his attorney made the continuance without consulting him, according to case law.

In an earlier attempt by Hersh to get out of county prison on bail, a Common Pleas judge hearing the case found that even though Hersh had been held beyond the 180 days, he should not be granted

the lower bail. “The nature and extent of the multiple felonies with which (he) is charged” and the likelihood of a conviction so great is such that “no condition of combination of conditions other than imprisonment will reasonably assure the safety of any person and the community,” Judge Anthony Sarcione wrote in August 2018.

Hersh’s trial date is currently set for March 2. However, both attorneys agreed their schedules could not fit that date, with Shaw saying she had a homicide case to try next month and needed about a month to round up the 50 witnesses involved in the case, some of whom now live out of state.

But when Sommer tried to “cut through the Gordian Knot” of Hersh’s case by setting up an advanced schedule for Hersh to get to trial as soon as possible, he was met with further obstacles.

Sommer suggested that the sides wrap up all pretrial motions by the end of April, and pick a jury on June 1. But Shaw said she was committed to personal business that month, and would be unavailable. Sommer said then that the next earliest date he would have to try a case the length and complexity of Hersh’s would not be until October.

Shaw said she would try to find someone else in her office to handle the case, but was the one most familiar with it — having successfully tried the case of Hersh’s co-conspirator in the burglaries in August

2018. Sommer said that he would return to the question on Monday, waiting to see what the DA’s Office would do about finding a replacement for Shaw.

“It will impact my decision on the bail,” he said.

Hersh was arrested by state police in 2016 along with his then-wife, Anita Hersh, and their accomplice, Jose Goines. According to an affidavit filed by state Trooper Stefano Gallina, the three were involved in burglaries in West Fallowfield, West Caln, Kennett, West Marlborough, and New London between October and November 2016.

Gallina said the common scheme of the burglaries was for the trip to pick a home away from a rural road on a weekday between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., when they guessed that the owners would not be home. They would knock on the front door, then kick it or a rear door in if no one answered. Ransacking the home, they took only jewelry, electronics, and cash, items that could be easily pawned.

Gallina was able to match pawn shop records to Hersh and his wife with items that had been reported taken in the burglaries.

Goines was tried and convicted of the burglaries in a week-plus long trial before Judge William Mahon and found guilty. He is currently serving a nine to 18year sentence state prison.