Judge won’t toss charges against constables
WEST CHESTER » The two state constables arrested last summer on charges of improperly using their official positions while working as private security guards along the controversial Mariner East Pipeline project will have to face trial on those charges after their attempt to have the cases against them thrown out failed.
Last week, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Sommer denied the move by constables Kareem Johnson of Coatesville and Michael Robel of Northumberlnd County to have bribery and conflict of interest charge against them dismissed because they claimed that no actual crimes had been committed when they began working as security guards along the pipeline construction area in West Whiteland.
The pair contended that that there is no law against constables working for private companies such as the Sunoco Pipeline firm, Energy Transfers Partners, outside the judicial system, and that neither man represented that they were working for any court while they patrolled the pipeline in West Whiteland, as the law prohibits.
Although Sommers ruled against them, he did so not on the merits of their claims but because of rules of criminal procedure in Pennsylvania that he agreed did not allow such a pre-trial move.
The judge accepted the position of Deputy District Attorney Thomas OstPrisco, who argued the case on Monday, that Johnson and Robel had given up their right to argue the quality of evidence against them at this stage in the process because they had waived their right to challenge the case at a preliminary hearing.
“The defendants are bound by the allegations set forth in the (criminal) information,” filed in Common Pleas Court, Sommer, who is overseeing the case against them, wrote. “Without a transcript of a preliminary hearing, there is simply no evidence before this court upon which the undersigned could make a determination.”
Sommer said that an attempt by attorneys for the two men to introduce a transcript of the preliminary hearings held in the case of the head of security for Energy Transfer Partners — at which a magisterial judge threw out the charges — to bolster their case was impermissible.
Attorneys Casey D. White, for Johnson, and Guiseppe Rosselli, for Robel, “cite no authority which would allow for the admission of such evidence at this state of the proceedings,” the judge wrote. “(OstPrisco) strongly opposed the court’s consideration of (the transcript),” a position with which Sommer said he agreed.
The pair’s trial is currently scheduled for Sept. 29. However, because of restrictions on criminal trials put in place by the courts due to the corona virus earlier this year, it is uncertain when any trial would be held. Both men remain free on bail, and continue to work as constables.
They were arrested in August 2019 when Chester County Detective Ben Martin filed criminal complaints against them after witnessing them working as guards along the controversial pipeline project in West Whiteland, allegedly using their official badges and positions as state officials in doing so.
Martin’s criminal complaint also said the two men did not report thousands of dollars in income they were paid by the private security firm that hired them as they are required to do under state ethics laws.
The pair charged with counts of bribery in official matters, a third-degree felony; official oppression, a second-degree misdemeanor; and violations of the state’s Ethics Standards and Financial Disclosure statute, including conflict of interest, accepting improper influence, and failure to file notice of financial interest — all ungraded felonies.
According to the arrest affidavit included in Martin’s criminal complaint, Martin began looking into the use of state constables as security guards along the pipeline construction area, which runs from Elverson southeast through the county to Westtown as it makes its way to extraction terminals owned by Sunoco in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, after complaints from residents and an independent journalist.
State constables are elected officials who work for the court system in the state. They serve subpoenas, transport prisoners to court proceedings, serve as courtroom security, and have the power to make arrests in limited circumstances, such as violations of a municipal ordinance. They are paid for by the court system with taxpayer funds, and as elected officials are required to file statements of financial interests, including any