Judge: No new bail in Honey Brook molestation case

WEST CHESTER >> A Common Pleas Court judge on Wednesday rejected the request of a Honey Brook man accused of molesting a young girl he was reportedly obsessed with for release on reduced bail pending his upcoming trial on indecent assault charges.

Judge Alison Bell Royer said that although the defendant, Robert Bailey Sr., was legally entitled to release on $1 nominal bail because his case had proceeded slowly, she remained concerned that his behavior could threaten the safety of the people he would come in contact with if released.

“This case has sat too long,” Royer said, agreeing with Assistant Public Defender P.J. Redmond that

more than 180 days had elapsed since his arrest in 2016. “And Mr. Bailey will get his trial. But I am uncomfortable given the facts and the circumstances” alleged by the prosecution.

“So for the protection of the community, I am not going to grant the motion for nominal bail,” Royer said in court.

Bailey, 58, was taken back from Royer’s courtroom to Chester County Prison, where he has been held since his arrest in March 2016 on $1 million bail. He is charged with solicitation for rape of a child, indecent assault, and corruption of minors. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 10 years in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Emily Provencher, of the DA’s Child Abuse Unit, urged Royer not to grant the motion for bail, saying that Bailey’s violent criminal history — he served years in state prison for a 1987 murder — coupled with the current allegations, made him a risk to the community.

She noted that if released, Bailey had indicated he would go to live with his wife, who now lives in a residential apartment complex where he could conceivably come in contact with neighborhood children. She said allegations of other improper contact with minors had been lodged against Bailey since his arrest.

According to court documents, the contact with the young girl began in January 2014 and continued through March 2016. The girl, who was between 7 and 9 years old at the time, told a state police investigator that Bailey had touched her buttocks over 100 times, had kissed her on the mouth, and had asked her to marry him so they could have sex. The contact came when she was at an neighborhood park or was getting off her school bus, she said.

She also told Trooper Lori Kistle that on one occasion Bailey had taken her to his home, removed her clothing, and molested her. Provencher told Royer that the girl is now a 12-year-old sixth grader.

Bailey was charged on March 7, 2016, and held on all charges by Magisterial District Judge Michael Cabry, who set the almost insurmountable bail.

The case was first assigned to Judge William Mahon, who granted continuances at Redmond’s request 18 times between June 2016 and August, when the prosecution began asking for its own continuances, according to the prosecution. Provencher told Royer that when the girl was being reinterviewed recently about the contact with Bailey, she disclosed other incidents that warranted a new investigation. Additional charges of indecent assault, which led to her requests for continuances, were later filed.

In general, criminal defendants are entitled to nominal bail if more than 180 days have elapsed since their arraignment, unless the delay was caused by their own requests for continuances. Provencher, however, cited case law saying that such bail is not necessarily automatic and is up to the discretion of the trial judge.

Bailey said little during the hearing besides conferring with Redmond and co-counsel, Assistant Public Defender Erin Bruno. He is a man with a confirmed violent past.

In 1987, he was involved in a verbal dispute with his step-father, Barry Killian, outside his home in Valley. After the two exchanged words, Bailey picked up a tire iron and struck Killian twice on the head, killing him. He pleaded guilty in 1988, and was sentenced to 7 ½ to 15 years in state prison, which he served until his release.

He also has a conviction for robbery from when he was 18.

Royer, in noting how long the case had taken to come to trial before she inherited it, said that Bailey’s case would immediately be listed on her upcoming February docket. Provencher and Redmond both said they were prepared to go to trial, which Provencher said should take one week.