Trial date set for man accused of assaults
Nenneth Holder, 34, of Lansdale, due in Montgomery County court for trial on numerous charges
Nenneth Holder, 34, due in Montgomery County court for trial on numerous charges.
NORRISTOWN >> A trial date has been set for a Lansdale man arrested twice in the span of a week in July of 2014 for allegedly assaulting two different women.
Nenneth Lee Holder, 34, is due in Montgomery County court on Aug. 18 for trial in both cases, records show; Holder faces multiple counts of simple assault, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, as well as resisting arrest and criminal trespassing, in both cases.
“I was terrified, literally shaking and scared ... I thought he was gonna start pounding on me,” shuddered one of his alleged victims inside Lansdale District Judge Harold Borek’s courtroom last summer as she testified during a preliminary hearing in the first case about her recollection of the events of July 28, 2014.
At approximately 9 p.m. that night, Lansdale police have said, officers were dispatched to an apartment on the 700 block of North Valley Forge Road for a reported domestic disturbance in progress after Holder — who was released from county jail earlier in the day after posting bond in connection with another alleged assault that occurred about a week earlier — had reportedly entered his ex-girlfriend’s apartment uninvited.
Upon arr ival, police spoke to the woman, who said that she had returned home with her two children — Holder is the children’s father, according to police — and while tending to one of the kids, the other child told her that Holder was inside the apartment, police said.
According to police, the woman said she had closed but not locked her front door after arriving at home and that Holder had followed her inside, approached her with “a crazed and glazed-over look in his eyes” while reeking of alco- hol and then bear-hugged her tightly, refusing to let go even after she told him to stop and to get out of the apartment.
“I told him to get the eff out,” the woman testified at the hearing, adding that she usually locks the door behind her because the incident was “what I’m afraid of ... I’ve been there before with him (assaulting me).”
Police said the woman told them she instructed her daughter to run away and get help, but Holder grabbed the girl’s arm and would not let her go, and that she and the child struggled to get free for five or 10 minutes.
“She was screaming, ‘Mommy, mommy, help me!’” the woman said on the witness stand as Holder looked down and shook his head.
Finally, according to police, the woman and her daughter escaped Holder’s clutches, ran out of the apartment, knocked on a neighbor’s door and ran downstairs to a laundry room, with Holder in pursuit, as she dialed 911. Holder reportedly begged her not to call police, but once the woman yelled at him that she already had, Holder fled the building and drove off in his Suburban.
A Lansdale officer testified that police subsequently went to Holder’s residence on the 1100 block of West Main Street, where they found him sitting on his stoop drinking a Bud Light and seemingly intoxicated.
Holder denied being at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, the officer testified, and when police went to take him into custody, he resisted arrest, fighting with four officers — including a Towamencin cop — until a Lansdale officer deployed his Taser to subdue Holder and get him handcuffed.
Holder ’s public de - fender, Ayla O’Brien, declined to make closing arguments, and Borek held all five charges filed against Holder — one count each of felony trespassing, misdemeanor simple assault, misdemeanor resisting arrest, misdemeanor disorderly conduct and summary public drunkenness — for trial.
Holder remained in the courtroom for a brief preliminary hearing in the second case. Police allege that on the evening of July 22, 2014, Holder attacked his fiancée in a drunken rage on a borough street after a series of arguments that culminated in her refusal to drive him to work.
“He had been drinking ... and he was in a bad mood when he woke up,” Holder’s fiancée testified, adding that the pair began to argue over “different little things” and that Holder was acting “antagonistic” toward her.
Police have said that shortly before 7 p.m., the woman began to drive Holder to work “because he was intoxicated and has a suspended driver’s license,” but after Holder again yelled at her and called her names, she stopped the Suburban on West Third Street, told him she wasn’t driving him anywhere and got out of the truck with the keys in her hand.
At that point, police said, Holder chased the woman, grabbed and tore her dress and bra as she was running, then tackled her on the front lawn of a nearby property and held onto her, demanding the keys to the vehicle.
Eventually, Holder released her, and she got into the back seat of the Suburban to get away from him; Holder yelled at her to drive him to work, so she locked the doors for her safety but left the windows open, and he punched her as officers arrived on the scene, ac- cording to police.
The woman testified that she has debilitating spinal and neck conditions and that Holder was aware of her conditions when he attacked her.
“So it probably wasn’t a good idea to tackle you,” the prosecutor asked.
“No, I wouldn’t suggest it,” the woman replied, saying that she sustained a minor injury to her leg from the assault.
Before she left the stand, the woman descr ibed Holder as “a good person” and stated that she wanted him to get help for his alcohol problems, saying that “the stress, anguish and pain” relating to custody issues involving his children is what drove him to drink.
Borek dismissed one count of misdemeanor simple assault pertaining to “an attempt by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury,” ruling that the tackling incident did not support such a charge, but held another misdemeanor count of simple assault, as well as summary counts of public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and harassment.
Records indicate Holder is free on $10,000 bond while awaiting trial.