Calls may get Newcomb’s bond revoked

A motion filed in Pike County accuses Rita Newcomb, the mother and grandmother of the suspects in the Rhoden family homicides, of violating her bond and is asking for her to be returned to jail.

Newcomb, 66, is free on electronic monitoring pending her trial, which is currently scheduled for October. She posted a $50,000 bond in November after being arrested Newcomb and charged with obstructing justice, perjury and three counts of forgery, all felonies.

Inthe motion filed Thursday, Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa and Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk said Newcomb and her daughter, Angela Wagner, who is being housed at the Delaware County Jail, have spoken multiple times in recorded phone conversations.

During a pretrial hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge Randy Deering said he considered a violation of the no contact order to be serious and admonished Newcomb.

Canepa said during the hearing that there have been multiple conversations between Newcomb and Angela Wagner “where they acknowledge they should not be talking.” They spoke about their pending cases, she said.

A hearing on the bond revocation motion will be held Aug. 28.

Newcomb’s attorney, Frank Gerlach, had filed a motion for three of the five charges against Newcomb to be dismissed. Deering will also hear arguments on that motion at the Aug. 28 hearing.

Newcomb had originally been charged along with Wagner family matriarch Fredricka Wagner. Wagner’s charges were dismissed in June.