Latest news with #Lupas
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Bail set for convicted serial stalker
May 27—WILKES-BARRE — With multiple arrests in multiple states for stalking women, and having been convicted of stalking a woman inside a church and her place of employment in Wilkes-Barre, Jeffrey John Hergert needs $300,000 bail to be released from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Hergert, 50, appeared via video for a bail hearing before Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas on Tuesday. Citing a concern for numerous closed and active stalking cases in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, South Carolina and Washington to name a few, Lupas set bail for Hergert at $300,000. Hergert was denied bail since his arrest in January by detectives from the Luzerne County district attorney's office on allegations he stalked five women inside and outside Planet Fitness in the Gateway Shopping Center, Edwardsville, and at Crunch Fitness near the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre Township in 2024, according to court records. Court records say Hergert initiated conversations with the women, waited for the women outside the fitness facilities and approached their vehicles as they parked or drove away. Conversations Hergert allegedly initiated usually involved the women's relationships. During the bail hearing Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Adam W. Bompadre opposed bail citing the numerous closed and active criminal cases of stalking women in multiple states. "We would ask for no bail or bail be set at $250,000," Bompadre aid. "If he was given bail, we're going to be looking for him." Before setting bail, Lupas acknowledged Hergert has a right to bail. If Hergert does post $300,000 bail, Lupas ordered him to be supervised with electronic monitoring. Hergert went on a tirade, calling everyone a "joke," and claimed he lost 50 pounds since his arrest in January. He also noted he is a U.S. Navy veteran and traveled to multiple states for employment. Hergert's trial on two counts of stalking and three counts of harassment is scheduled in June. Court records say Herbert, in 2012, who resided on Madison Street, Wilkes-Barre, at the time, was charged with stalking a woman when she attended Mass at a South Wilkes-Barre church and at her place of employment on Carey Avenue, Wilkes-Barre. Herbert was sentenced in October 2012 to one to three years in state prison on stalking and harassment charges.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Yahoo
Superior Court upholds sentence in Wilkes-Barre Township traffic stop case
Apr. 17—Believing a Luzerne County judge imposed an excessive and harsh sentence for illegally possessing a firearm, Adrian Scott's appeal was rejected by the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday. Scott, 40, formerly of South Main Street, Hanover Township, was sentenced by Judge David W. Lupas on April 3, 2024, to five-to-10 years in state prison on the firearm offense, driving under the influence of marijuana and possession of a small amount of marijuana. Scott was charged when Wilkes-Barre Township police conducted a traffic stop on Highland Park Boulevard for driving a Jeep Cherokee with an expired New Jersey license late on Oct. 20, 2022, according to court records. During the traffic stop, police detected a strong odor of marijuana and found a Glock 9mm handgun inside the Jeep, court records say. Police further found, court records say, a magazine with 14 9mm rounds in Scott's pocket. Scott is prohibited from owning, possessing and carrying a firearm due to felony arson, burglary and assault convictions in New York. In his appeal, Scott claimed his convictions in New York were more than 20 years ago and were wrongly considered when Lupas imposed the sentence in April 2024, and his acceptance of responsibility by pleading guilty and cooperation with police officers were ignored. A three-member panel of the Superior Court called Lupas' sentence, "sound." "(Lupas) evaluated (Scott's) criminal history and stated that issuing a term of imprisonment within the standard sentencing range was necessary to protect the public and rehabilitate (Scott)," the appellate court ruled in an eight page opinion.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Yahoo
Appeals court upholds child sex conviction for Wilkes-Barre man
Apr. 7—A panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the conviction and decades long sentence for a Wilkes-Barre man who was found guilty by a Luzerne County jury of raping a girl in 2020 and 2021. Bryan Nee, 35, challenged evidence allowed by Judge David W. Lupas to be used during the trial related to the girl's forensic interview and medical examine at the Luzerne County Children's Advocacy Center. Nee, in his appeal, claimed the testimony by a forensic interviewer was "hearsay," and evidence presented during the three day trial held in January 2023, was insufficient to convict him of rape of a child and unlawful contact with a minor. The three member panel of the Superior Court in a nine-page opinion rejected Nee's appeal citing Lupas correctly allowed the nurse practitioner and forensic interviewer to testify under the state's Tender Year's Doctrine. After Nee was convicted, Lupas sentenced Nee to to 20 to 40 years in state prison and was deemed a sexually violent predator subject to lifetime registration under the state's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act. During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Carly Levandoski and former assistant district attorney John Carroll relied on Nee being diagnosed with having oral HSV-1 and genital HSV-2 herpes and the testimony of a nurse practitioner who treated the girl. The girl, then 5, was diagnosed as having genital herpes when her mother took her to an urgent care facility believing the child had a rash. During the forensic interview, which a recording was played to the jury, the girl told the interviewer Nee took baths with her and told her to keep it a secret. Levandoski during the trial told the jury a girl at 5-years-old should not have a sexually transmitted disease and should not know certain body parts.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
West Pittston man, 74, sentenced for child sex offense
Jan. 28—WILKES-BARRE — A West Pittston man claimed innocence Tuesday when he was sentenced for molesting a girl multiple times in Hanover and Jackson townships for several years. John Joseph Davis, of Luzerne Avenue, said the reason why he did not contest the allegations was he feared a longer prison sentence, if convicted. "I'm almost 75, nothing like this has ever happened to me," Davis said during his sentencing hearing before Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas. "I entered the plea agreement because it was the lesser of two evils. I always tried to do the best I could. I have never ever in my life molested a child." Lupas sentenced Davis to 11-23 months at the county correctional facility for his no-contest plea to indecent assault. The plea agreement was accepted Oct. 15, when state prosecutors withdrew charges of aggravated indecent assault and corruption of minors. Lupas further sentenced Davis to five years probation. Davis was arrested in August 2022, following a multi-jurisdictional investigation by Hanover Township police and Jackson Township police. Davis was known to the girl's father and would often visit their homes when they lived in Jackson Township and again when the girl and her father moved to Hanover Township. Davis would frequently take photographs of the girl and go for walks with her in woods where he inappropriately touched her, according to court records. The girl told investigators, court records say, she informed her father of the inappropriate touching but her father told her don't be scared of Davis. Davis is subject to lifetime registration of his address under the state's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
