Former Connellsville cop’s rape trial in Westmoreland won’t be transferred to Fayette
A Westmoreland County judge has ordered the rape trail of a former Connellsville police officer not be transferred to Fayette County where a similar trial is set to take place.
On Wednesday, Judge Rita Hathaway filed an opinion in the case of Ryan Reese, 44, of Connellsville, denying the motion filed by Deputy Attorney General Patrick J. Schulte to transfer Reese’s case to the Fayette County.
The Westmoreland County charges against Reese were filed in March after an incident in 2011 where Reese, who was a member of the now defunct Fayette County Drug Task Force, arrested a woman after making a drug purchase in Connellsville and had her act as a confidential informant to help her get out of her charges.
However, two months later, Reese, dressed in civilian clothes, allegedly knocked on the door of her Westmoreland County home and informed her he had a warrant for her arrest.
According to court documents, the woman told Reese she needed to get dressed, and Reese followed her to her bedroom with a pair of handcuffs, which he allegedly used to restrain her while he pushed her on her bed and had sex with her.
Reese then escorted the woman to his vehicle and took her to jail, telling her nobody would believe her because she was a junkie and he was a narcotics task force officer.
Reese was also charged in another similar incident in Fayette County from an alleged rape and sexual assault that occurred in 2012.
The Herald-Standard does not identify alleged victims of sexual crimes.
The prosecution’s argument for transferring the case to Fayette County was because, even though the alleged rape and sexual assault occurred in Westmoreland, Reese was a Connellsville police sergeant and a member of the Fayette drug task force, and he took the woman to Fayette County after the incident.
The defense argued that the case in Westmoreland County and Fayette County are not considered a single criminal episode and, therefore, shouldn’t be transferred.
Reese is represented by Attorney Emily Smarto.
Hathaway agreed, stating in her opinion that a transfer “is not appropriate in this case.” Although some factual similarities exist, with Reese allegedly using “his position of power to terrorize and harm vulnerable women who were in his custody”, the two incidents aren’t a single criminal episode because they would not rest solely on the credibility of a single witness, she found.
“Each case depends on the testimony of a separate victim, who would testify to a completely different course of events and set of facts,” Hathaway wrote, adding that the two incidents are separate in time by seven months.
Hathaway added that considering both cases as a “same criminal episode” would be a disservice to the victims.
In early November, Reese was found guilty by a Fayette County jury on the charge of corruptions of minors after a three-day trial on charges stemming from an incident where he had sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old heroin addict he arrested for a drug crime in 2013.
A sentencing hearing for Reese in that case is scheduled for Dec. 13 at the Fayette County Courthouse.
He’s awaiting trial on his two rape cases.
Reese is free on $75,000 bond, and a judge has ordered him to be placed on electronic home monitoring and to have his firearms removed.
He resigned from the drug task force in 2012 and then resigned from the Connellsville police department in 2014, before he was charged.