Former Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas on house arrest awaiting trial
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) — A suspended western Pennsylvania prosecutor has been ordered confined on house arrest as he awaits trial in separate sexual assault and assault cases.
A Somerset County judge on Friday revoked bond for 36-year-old Jeffrey Thomas, the county's elected district attorney, and ordered him to stay at the Windber home of a relative with an electronic ankle monitor.
Thomas was jailed last week on charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment and harassment after state police alleged that he was seen on a video call punching a woman as the two rode in a vehicle in May 2021. He was already facing sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint and strangulation charges in an alleged attack on a woman in her Windber home in September.
Senior deputies in the state attorney general's office asked that Thomas be jailed while awaiting trial, accusing him of a continued "pattern of violent behavior" seen in the two cases and other incidents not resulting in criminal charges. Defense attorneys Ryan Tutera and Eric Jackson Lurie said those cases don't argue for bail revocation. Tutera has said that Thomas maintains he is innocent of all of the charges.
Judge Timothy Creany, a Cambria County senior judge appointed by the court to hear the case, ordered Thomas to avoid any contact with anyone associated with the charges and to follow probation reporting guidelines, warning that failure to follow those rules would mean "immediate incarceration."
Thomas was elected in 2019 but was suspended after charges in the sexual assault case were filed, and his pay was halted several months ago.
