Former jail guard to stand trial
A district judge ordered a former Washington County jail guard to stand trial in an alleged attack on his wife at her East Bethlehem Township home in September.
Andrew Lee Taylor, 30, also of East Bethlehem, appeared Wednesday before District Judge Curtis Thompson for a preliminary hearing on charges of simple assault, harassment and terroristic threats.
The charges, which Thompson held for court, are the second set state police have filed in connection with an alleged Sept. 6 incident.
The charges initially were dismissed during an October hearing when Courtney Taylor, the alleged victim, didn’t come to a hearing to testify before District Judge Mark Wilson.
Assistant District Attorney Kristin Clingerman said Courtney Taylor didn’t receive notice of the first proceeding. She testified Wednesday.
Trooper Michael Brown, who also testified, wrote in an affidavit supporting the charges Courtney Taylor told troopers her husband had come to her house despite a protection-from-abuse order she had against him and opened a kitchen window from the backyard to tell her he’d kill her if she didn’t let him into the house.
Courtney Taylor told police she let her husband into the home before he “began trashing the bedroom.” Brown said Courtney Taylor had “redness on her right cheek and neck area” where her husband allegedly slapped her with an open hand and choked her. Andrew Taylor was still at the house when police arrived. He left through the garage and was “placed under arrest without incident.”
He was sentenced to six months in prison for a PFA violation. His bond on charges stemming from an April 25 incident – in which he allegedly assaulted Courtney Taylor and his stepdaughter, who was 5 – also was revoked following the Sept. 6 incident. He is confined in Greene County jail, as that case is still pending in Washington County Court.