Outburst brings chaos to courtroom

Aburglary trial plunged into disorder as the accused lashed out a this est ranged wife during her testimony against him.

WEST CHESTER » A burglary trial in Common Pleas Court plunged into disorder Thursday as the accused, who is representing himself, lashed out at his estranged wife during her testimony against him and ultimately had to be tackled and Tasered by Chester County deputy sheriffs.

Christopher Michael Hersh flipped over a podium he was using during his cross-examination of witness Anita Hersh, after angrily confronting her with accusations about her alleged abuse of their son and affairs with the man whowas found guilty of aiding them in a series of burglaries in southern Chester County several years ago. The podium broke in two, and the judge overseeing the case quickly dismissed the jury from the courtroom.

When a visibly seething Hersh walked back to the defense table, Judge Jeffrey Sommer ordered him to calm down and be seated, but he would not. Cursing and refusing the judge’s instructions, Hersh was tackled by three deputy sheriffs who had circled him as he shouted invective at the judge.

When the trio, along with Pennsylvania State Trooper Corporal Stefano Galina, the lead investigator in the case, grappled with Hersh and forced him to the ground, he continued to struggle and one of the deputies shocked him with his Taser.

“I didn’t touch you!” Hersh exclaimed while the four men held him on the

“He has engaged inapattern of behavior culminating in an attempt to do everything he could todisrupt the judicial process.” — Judge Jeffrey Sommer

floor as courtroom spectators stared agape at the violent outburst. “You touched me! It’s police brutality!”

Hersh was eventually led from the courtroom by a phalanx of deputy sheriffs, his gray shirt askew and the tie he had been wearing hanging from his pants pocket.

Hersh, 36, ofAvondale, is accused of multiple counts of burglary and conspiracyinthe case. Hewas arrestedby state police in 2016 alongwith hiswife and their alleged accomplice, Jose Goines. According to an affidavit filed byGallina andKennett SquareDetective AmandaWenrich, the three were involved in burglaries inWest 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 trio to pick a home located a distance 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 or electronics, items that couldbe easilypawned, andcash. Gallina was later able tomatch pawnshop records with items that had been reported taken in the burglaries, and thentie themtoGoines, Hersh, andhis wife. Goineswas tried and convicted of theburglaries inaweek-plus long trial in 2018, at which Anita Her sh also testified. He was found guilty and is currently serving a nine to 18- year sentence in state prison.

AnitaHersh took the stand to testify against her husband on Thursday and spentmost of themorning identifying videos taken at pawn shops the three had gone to, to convert the stolen jewelry they had to cash. After Assistant District Attorney Zachary Yurick finished questioning her, Hersh took on the cross-examination.

In the beginning, Hersh attempted to attack his wife’s credibility by pointing out that although she had been charged with physically assaulting their son in 2017 when he was 11-months-old, for which she faced as much as four years in state prison, she had been allowed to plead to a lesser charge. He suggested that she had escaped the harsher punishment in exchange for her cooperation and that her testimony against him was false, made up to gain favorwith the authorities.

“You’ll say anything they want,” he charged.

But as the cross-examination continued, he beganto questionhermore about their marriage and other side issues and became increasingly agitated. Eventually, he asked whether she and Go in es had been having an affair when the alleged burglaries occurred, an accusation she denied. Hersh also suggested that she was testifying against him as revenge for his having had an affair with another, unnamed, woman while they weremarried.

“Youwould say anything,” to lessen a possible prison sentence on the burglaries she is charged with, Hersh said in anger. “You destroyedmy family. You hit our kid. All I did was love you!” he shouted, before throwingover the courtroom podium and shouting in disgust, “You are a baby killer!”

When he did, Sommer, who had been attempting to keep Hersh calm while limiting the questions he could askhiswife, orderedthe jurors to leave the court room and break for lunch. After they left, Hersh was escorted back to the defense table by a deputy togeta drink of water but shouted an obscenity at So mm eras the judge ordered him to sit at the defense table.

And with that, the deputies grabbed him on all sides, struggled with him to the center of the courtroom, and forced him to the floor.

When a more subdued Hersh returned to the courtroom after a lunch break, Sommer told him that hismisbehavior had consequences.

Hersh was forbidden from standing in the courtroom, was kept in leg shackles, and could not continue his cross-examination of his wife, who was excused fromthe trial. The judge issued a cautionary instruction to the jury panel when they returned, telling them not to use the outburst in any way during their deliberations.

In a conversation with defense attorney Phillip Simon of Glen Mills, who is assisting Hersh in the case, Sommer indicated that he would not grant a mistrial if Hersh asked for one, primarily because of Hersh’s past conduct regarding his case.

“He has engaged in a pattern of behavior culminating in an attempt to do everything he could to disrupt the judicial process,” Sommer said. Allowing him to get a new trial for his own outburst would simply encourage him to follow suit in any future proceeding, the judge said. “It will incentivize him. He should not be rewarded for his own misbehavior.”

The burglary charges that have held Hersh in Chester County Prison for almost four years are not the only legal jeopardy that he faces. Earlier this month he was identified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as one of 12 inmates at the prisonwho fraudulently applied for unemployment benefits related to COVID-19. The defendants are chargedwith submitting false applications claiming that they lost jobs as a result of the pandemic.

If convicted of all the federal charges, Hersh faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine.

When Hersh came back in the courtroom on Thursday, he was surrounded by two times the normal number of deputy sheriffs. He told Sommer that he would not be calling witnesses on his behalf, or testifying himself, and may allow Simon to handle his closing argument on Friday.

“I just apologize to the court,” Hersh said.