EASTON, Pa. — Criminal defense attorneys representing four Northampton County Republican State Committee members in a politically charged harassment case said they will appeal a decision allowing a GOP-paid attorney to prosecute them.
Debra Biro, Melanie Heilman, Steve Lynch and Richard Morea appeared Thursday for their formal arraignment in Northampton County Court.
They're accused of harassing members of the Northampton County Republican Committee during a raucous June 2023 meeting at the county committee's Bethlehem Township headquarters.
The case started in 2023 when Glenn Geissinger, chairman of the county committee, filed police complaints against the four.
Then-Northampton County District Attorney Terry Houck opted not to let the case move forward, but his successor, Stephen Baratta, after taking office early this year, permitted Geissinger to pursue the case as a private criminal matter.
The county committee hired attorney Bob Goldman, a former Bucks County assistant district attorney, who successfully argued in magisterial district court that misdemeanor harassment charges should be bound over for county court.
Once a private criminal complaint reaches county court, the local district attorney's office typically assumes control of the case. If local prosecutors have too large a caseload, the office might hire outside counsel to prosecute the matter on its behalf.
'Didn't feel comfortable taking the case'
Instead, Goldman will continue to represent the prosecution against the four state committee members while being paid by the Northampton County Republican Committee, Baratta and defense attorneys said.
After the arraignment, defense attorneys Christopher Shipman and Andrew Teitelman said they plan to appeal the decision letting Goldman continue the prosecution.
The charges stem from a political rivalry between Geissinger and the defendants and don't rise to the level of a crime, they said.
"I've been doing this since 1985, and I've never seen a process like this."Defense attorney Andrew Teitelman
Letting Goldman continue on the case would amount to Geissinger acting as both a victim and prosecutor, they said.
"I've been doing this since 1985, and I've never seen a process like this," Teitelman said.
While the case is about politics, Geissinger has denied the charges are politically motivated. He previously said the four have hijacked committee meetings and made people feel unsafe.
Baratta said Thursday that he permitted Goldman to continue on the case to avoid a conflict of interest.
During his campaign for district attorney in 2023, Baratta defeated Houck in the Democratic primary. However, Houck received enough write-in votes to continue on the Republican ballot.
Ultimately, Houck dropped out of the race after failing to find financial and political support from Geissinger and other local Republicans.
Baratta said he intended to meet with his senior staff to discuss how to handle the harassment charges, but he believed he would likely need to recommend the case to the state Attorney General's Office to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Before that could happen, though, Goldman filed a request in Northampton County Court to continue on as a special prosecutor who would still be paid by the Northampton County Republican Committee.
Baratta said he did not speak with Geissinger or Goldman before the request was filed but that he did not object to it.
"I just didn't feel comfortable taking the case," said Baratta, who described the case as an internal Republican dispute.
Pornography led to heated meeting
Thursday's legal wrangling added to an already strange case that tests the limits of political speech.
Local Republicans testified this summer that Biro, Heilman, Lynch and Morea already had built a reputation within the party for their extreme behavior.
During one meeting, the committee had to call police when some of them began climbing on tables to scream at people in a private room of a restaurant.
No charges were filed in that case.
Lynch, a former candidate for Northampton County executive, has used aggressive rhetoric on the campaign trail.
His 2021 campaign focused on what he called state and federal overreach during the coronavirus pandemic, and he vowed to bring "20 strong men" to a Northampton Area School Board meeting to remove its members from office when it enforced a mask mandate.
He later said his comments were not meant as a call to violence.
On June 8, 2023, an anonymous source alerted local Republicans that two of their committee members appeared in pornographic images available on PornHub.com.
Biro, Heilman, Lynch and Morea showed up with printouts of the images and demanded the couple be removed from office.
Geissinger tried to create a committee to investigate the matter, but the quartet demanded immediate action and tried to present the pornography to members, according to testimony.
The confrontation devolved into a shouting match, and the meeting was abruptly adjourned when order could not be restored.
Part of the democratic process
Goldman contended at the magisterial district court hearing that the defendants' behavior amounted to criminal activity when they tried to intimidate party members into compliance.
Witnesses testified that Lynch and Morea screamed at Geissinger and Republican Committee Vice Chair Andrew Azan while inches from their faces.
Geissinger testified that Morea snapped the meeting's gavel while others said Geissinger broke it while trying to restore order to the meeting.
The defense countered that while ugly, the behavior was protected political speech.
Shipman argued that what happened is part of the democratic process and that things get as heated in municipal meetings and the U.S. Senate.
At Thursday's arraignment, Goldman tried to modify the defendants' bail so they would not be permitted to attend any of the county committee's meetings or events, enter the committee's headquarters or contact potential witnesses ahead of their trial.
Teitelman and Shipman objected. The four were elected to the state committee, and the bail conditions would prevent them from serving their constituents as the 2024 election cycle kicks into high gear, they argued.
Northampton County Judge Michael Koury did not address the bail modification request, saying it should be addressed by whichever judge is assigned the case.
Trial is scheduled for Oct. 29.
