Drexel Hill man is charged after foiled robbery at Rite Aid
NEWTOWN » A 36-year-old Drexel Hill man was arrested Monday morning for an attempted robbery at the Rite Aid Pharmacy on the 3500 block of West Chester Pike Sunday evening.
Frank Desan, of the 4400 block of Rosemont Avenue, is facing charges of attempted robbery and driving under suspension, according to Police Chief Chris Lunn.
Lunn said Desan entered the pharmacy at about 5:45 p.m. and proceeded directly to the cashiers, where he allegedly brandished a box cutter and demanded money. The cashiers told Desan they had called police and he fled empty handed, Lunn said.
Desan allegedly got into a vehicle registered to a Drexel Hill address and left the parking lot. Lunn said a witness took a picture of him leaving in the car. Officers were able to track Desan through the vehicle’s registration and made an arrest Monday morning, Lunn said.
Desan was set to be preliminarily arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Leon Hunter Monday afternoon, according to Lunn.
It is not Desan’s first runin with the law, according to electronic court records. He pleaded guilty in February to possession of a controlled substance, for which he was sentenced to one year of probation. Desan also received up to one year in county prison in 2004 for drug possession and was sentenced to four to eight years in a state prison in 2006 after being convicted on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance in a 2004 arrest at 69th Street Terminal.
Desan unsuccessfully appealed the 2006 conviction and filed a civil rights lawsuit last year against the SEPTA Police Department seeking $2 million in damages, according to court documents. He claimed SEPTA officers grabbed him as he came out of a public bathroom at the terminal, then sat him in a chair while they searched his possessions and “made their discoveries.” Desan said he spent eight years in prison and suffers from “nightmares and hellish depression” as a result.
Though his false arrest claims were legally cognizable, a federal judge found Desan had missed the twoyear statute of limitations to bring suit by more than a decade and dismissed the complaint with prejudice.