‘Sucker punch’ prelim set for today
Barry Baker Jr. accused of punching man with cerebral palsy
WEST CHESTER » A district court proceeding that likely would have been just a minor blip on Chester County’s criminal justice radar screen but has turned into a national media firestorm is expected to get underway this morning, as “sucker punch” defendant Barry Robert Baker Jr.’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to occur.
Magisterial District Judge Mark Bruno’s courtroom in the county Criminal Justice Center will be the setting for the hearing, if Baker does not choose to waive the proceeding entirely and make his way to Common Pleas Court on the charges of simple assault, harassment, and disorderly conduct.
If he chooses to go ahead with the hearing, however, the alleged victim in the case — who has not been publicly identified thus far — could make his first statements about the assault since it occurred more than two months ago.
The 22-year-old man was leaving a convenience store in West Chester in the early morning hours of May 10 when Baker, standing outside the store, without warning punched the man in the face. The man was stunned but not seriously injured, and Baker walked from the scene only to be taken into custody by police a short time later.
But while Baker’s actions amounted to little more than second-degree misdemeanor charges and two summary offenses, the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault and the reaction to it turned the matter into the focus of scorn across the country and propelled Baker into a “most wanted” fugitive who now faces even greater criminal liability.
The man who Baker punched — an incident that was captured on the store’s video surveillance camera — has cerebral palsy, according to authorities. Baker was seen mocking the way the man walked into and out of the
store before throwing the punch. West Chester Police Chief Scott Bohn, after watching the video, labelled Baker’s actions, “appalling.
“You wonder what would make an individual treat somebody like that,” he said at the time.
Baker was charged with the assault a short while after the incident, and was scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing in late May. But when the release of the video showing what happened went viral on the internet, Baker opted to abscond. Two warrants were issued for his arrest — on probation violation and delinquent child support charges — and he spent two weeks running from law enforcement’s effort to track him down, in what District Attorney
Tom Hogan, who initially publicized the sucker punch incident, called “a relentless manhunt.”
Baker, 29, of Georgetown, Delaware, was eventually captured at a Uwchlan hotel in June, and is now being held in Chester County Prison on $100,000 bail. Because investigators were able to obtain evidence that Baker had actively sought to avoid turning himself in on two court warrants that were issued in the wake of the media blitzkrieg, he faces an Aug. 29 hearing in Uwchlan District Court on those charges.
Baker has not made any comment on the sucker punch case, and told a judge at a bail hearing after his capture that he had been trying to turn himself over to authorities the day of his arrest.