Man charged with trespassing at ex-girlfriend’s house

A former Womelsdorf man was sitting in a chair in the darkness of his ex-girlfriend’s Robesonia home in the middle of the night when police responded to the woman’s 9-1-1 call about an intruder, authorities said Monday, Dec. 27.

Stephen C.R. Casner, 32, no permanent address, was ordered by a South Heidelberg Township police officer to come out with his hands up shortly before 1:15 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 26, police said in a criminal complaint.

According to South Heidelberg police, who provide police services to Robesonia:

The woman called 9-1-1 while she was on the second floor with her two children. She told a dispatcher that she heard noises and what sounded like someone walking on the first floor.

Several officers arrived and found the house dark.

One officer went around to the back of the house where he found a broken window. He saw a man later identified as Casner in a chair in the hallway that leads to the kitchen. He ordered Casner to come out through the nearby door nearby, and Casner complied.

Another policeman handcuffed Casner, and police asked Casner what he was doing there.

Casner, who is barred from being in the woman’s home, said he wanted to see his kids. He further explained that he had walked to Robesonia from a Reading homeless shelter where he had been staying since he recently got out of jail.

The woman told police the window had been broken previously and she had the opening covered with plastic nailed to the frame.

Police saw shoe prints on the outside wall below the window, indicating Casner jumped up to the window and pushed against the wall with his feet for leverage before forcing his way through the plastic covering.

Casner was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Sunday night before District Judge Ann L. Young in Reading Central Court. He faces charges of criminal trespassing by breaking into a structure and loitering and prowling at night time.

According to court records, Casner waived a hearing Dec. 3 before Young on charges of loitering and prowling at night time and disorderly conduct on Oct. 1. That incident also was handled by South Heidelberg police. Details of that case were not immediately available.