Russian Roulette Pt 15 – The Northampton County Clown Show Including “Volume Violence,” “Demeanor Violence,” A Judge Telling the Special Prosecutor That He’s Improperly Threatening A Witness, And A Parking Lot Assault!

Back in December, when I wrote part 14 of this Russian Roulette series – PaGOP Doubles Down on Insatiable Desire to Lose the 2024 Elections – I *thought* it would cause the Party, at all levels, to open its eyes and unite, resulting in it being time to put this series to bed. And with what seemed like a Christmas miracle with everyone seemingly focused on winning over the past 6 months, especially with President Trump being our nominee, I thought I may just have been right. But little did I know, it was the calm before the storm and that individuals within our Party were scheming, during this time, to utilize lawfare against our own and just like that, like Lazarus, this series has risen from the grave.

In honesty, this article, by the time of publication, is about a week late, and for that, I apologize. Things have been insane on my end. While I know many (or probably all of you) could care less about this delay, it is my personal desire to provide you with issues of this nature as close to in real-time as possible, so that they can hopefully be addressed and quelled before festering to a point, where all is lost. But, enough about this…let’s talk about the clown show that is Northampton County.

As many of you know, I’ve written previously about the ongoing shenanigans in Northampton County, including the Chair Glenn Geissinger filing criminal complaints against four committee members, then falsely contending that such was authorized by the PaGOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas, and for the icing on the cake, immediately telling everything to liberal blogger Bernie O’Hare. And of course, as was expected, upon investigating the complaint, the police department and then-district attorney declined to prosecute.

But then, a new district attorney was elected in Northampton County and Chair Geissinger, still disgruntled with his inability to remove four patriots from the executive committee, elected to file a private criminal complaint against the four, alleging 8 counts against each one (1. harassment, 2. conspiracy harassment, 3. disorderly conduct – engage in fight, 4. conspiracy disorderly conduct – engage in fight, 5. disorderly conduct – unreasonable noise, 6. conspiracy disorderly conduct – unreasonable noise, 7. disorderly conduct – hazardous or physically offensive conduct, 8. conspiracy disorderly conduct – hazardous or physically offensive conduct.) The new district attorney – Stephen Baratta – knowing nothing of the police’s prior investigation or prior district attorney’s decision – allows Chair Geissinger to proceed with his private criminal complaint. District Attorney Baratta then appoints a special prosecutor – Robert Goldman – and that brings us to the preliminary hearing on Friday, June 7th.

For those unaware, at a preliminary hearing, all the Commonwealth has to establish is that it is likely that some crime occurred and everything provided by the Commonwealth (i.e. testimony, exhibits…etc) must be accepted as true, even if, the defense can provide evidence that undisputedly refutes the evidence submitted by the Commonwealth. (And this will become important later on in this article). Thus, it is extremely rare for a defendant to be successful in having a case or charges dismissed against them at a preliminary hearing, as the deck could not be stacked anymore against a criminal defendant.

The courtroom was packed, with not a single seat remaining. The hearing was held before Magisterial District Judge Jacqueline M. Taschner, who, I must say, I believe did a phenomenal job. While I disagreed with her on two of her objection rulings and her final decision in relation to harassment, she was clearly an extremely well seasoned magisterial district judge; something you do not see too often. But let’s get to the heart of the matter.

Chair Geissinger was the first called to the stand. He explained that during the June 8, 2023 executive committee meeting, four state committee members – Biro, Heilman, Morea, and Lynch – raised concern over an anonymous email that was sent to all Northampton County GOP members immediately before the meeting involving two committee members having a Pornhub channel and distributing sexually explicit pictures and the like of themselves involved in different sex acts. Initially, during the reading of the minutes, Biro raised a point of order and raised issue over the email. Chair Geissinger said that he told her that this was not the appropriate time and that it should be brought up in new business. Biro then sat back down. Somewhere around an hour later, when they got to new business, Biro raised the issue and Chair Geissinger denied having received any such email, even though, his email address was listed as one of the recipients that was CC’ed. At that point, Morea allegedly called Chair Geissinger a liar, due to his email address being listed in the CC field. At this point, Chair Geissinger tells them that this isn’t the proper forum to raise this complaint and although he testified that he told them when and before what body was the appropriate, the surprise audio recording of the meeting later clearly disputed this contention. But, we’ll get to that in a bit.

Anyway, Chair Geissinger, because of numerous individuals raising their voices over the email’s content and demanding that it be addressed, as they believed it to be a stain on the committee, gaveled numerous times for order, but everyone was speaking so loudly that he continued to gavel harder and harder, until he broke the gavel. (It should be noted that although Chair Geissinger never mentioned in his testimony a broken gavel, likely because he was acutely aware that it was the result of his own actions, Vice Chair Andrew Azan contended that Morea broke the gavel; however, upon playing of the audio recording, it is quite clear that it is Chair Geissinger in control of the gavel and yelling order at the time their is an audible sound of the gavel breaking).

At this point, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made, it is seconded, and the meeting was adjourned. At that point, Morea and Lynch allegedly came to the front table to show a copy of the email to Chair Geissinger that he disputed having received a copy of and which contained examples of the photos of the committee members from Pornhub. Chair Geissinger contended that Morea put it approximately 12″ from his face and told him to look at it, to which he refused. At this point, Chair Geissinger admitted it became a yelling match between himself, Morea and Lynch. Interestingly, Chair Geissinger admitted that Heilman and Biro never came up to the front table and that he lost track of them.

During cross-examination, Chair Geissinger admitted that he did not feel so threatened to call the police and that no physical contact occurred. He contends that Morea’s conduct of getting close to him was intimidating but he wasn’t so intimidated to take the action Morea was requesting – to immediately investigate the committee members, who were depicted on the Pornhub channel.

And then, this is where things take a turn. Chair Geissinger becomes extremely defensive and flippant to questions being asked of him, even by the Judge. On more than one occasion, Judge Taschner had to remind Chair Geissinger that she, not he, was the judge, and that he was to follow her direction. In my opinion, this could not have been more of an embarrassment to the Northampton County Republican Party and state Party, as this is FAR from the professionalism that one would expect of any member of the county or state Party, let alone a chair.

Next to testify was Vice Chair Azan. He testified pretty similar to Chair Geissinger. However, as mentioned previously, he contended that Morea broke the gavel, when he approached the table, after the meeting had already been adjourned. He also testified that he doesn’t remember hearing anything from Biro, other than her initial point of order, to which Geissinger had told her to wait until new business to raise, and that he also didn’t specifically see Heilman do anything. However, he contended that Biro’s “aggressive statement” in her point of order was “We need to take care of this right now.” Other “aggressive statements” he testified to of the other members were “You need to remove these people” and “we need to take care of this right now, they need to be removed.” When asked what conduct of Lynch was “unsafe,” his response was “some people are just intimidated by Lynch” but then quickly added that he isn’t intimidated by him and didn’t feel unsafe by Lynch’s actions. It was quite telling that during numerous portions of Azan’s testimony, Chair Geissinger had his head on the table and at other times was rubbing his temples. Azan also testified that he did not see what all went on after the meeting was adjourned, as there was an altercation in the parking lot between two Republican candidates that he needed to break up… Again, you can’t make this shit up….

And then, we went even more into the liberal Bizarro world, when Dr. Scott Janney took the stand. After acknowledging that he didn’t remember any issues prior to new business and that neither he nor anyone else was touched by anyone, he testified that he felt threatened because of the “volume violence” and “demeanor violence.” When asked what he meant by “volume violence,” he could only respond that “I believe voices can be violent” and that volume violence is based upon loudness… When asked what he meant by “demeanor violence,” he was unable to define it, but doubled-down on the fact that it definitely took place during the meeting on June 8th… You can’t make this stuff up folks. Oh yeah, he also testified that there were no curse words or obscene language used, either, nor threats of violence. The first thing that I thought of when I heard all of this is the Matt Best video Epic Rap Battle: Gun Owner v. Liberal and the line “So show me where I offended you on the teddy bear.”

The last prosecution witness was Shawn Welsch. He testified that the hearing was like “pandemonium.” He said he was frightened by the yelling and that the environment was that of extreme tension. He continually stated that the four used offensive language, but when pressed on the specific offensive language any of the four utilized, he begrudgingly acknowledged that he didn’t remember.

What was perhaps the funniest part of the hearing was each of the prosecution’s witnesses being asked to portray how long loud each of the four members were. Unfortunately, the written transcript won’t be able to reflect this, but almost everyone in the courtroom was jiggling at what was being contended to be “volume violence.” Quite honestly, it didn’t come close to the “volume violence” I’ve experienced at zoning board hearings… But I, again, digress…

And then, the prosecution rested and the defense called a surprise witness – Brian McCullough. As a candidate, who had been threatened by his Republican opponent (and who was the individual that was accosted in the parking lot at the end of the meeting), he was advised by his attorney to record all public events that he attends. When Judge Taschner ruled that McCullough could play the tape, Chair Geissinger put his head on the table and later was seen rubbing his temples. After hearing the audio, I understand why. It *completely* debunked the bullshit that the prosecution witnesses testified to. Were there parts of the meeting, as reflected by the audio recording, that were lively? Absolutely, without a doubt and I think everyone agreed that there were. But to levels of “volume violence?” ROFLMAO, no… To levels of disorderly conduct? Nowhere close. What about being lewd, obscene or threatening? Not by any stretch of the imagination, especially given their own testimony.

But then, the case took another unexpected twist – something I had never witnessed nor heard of in my entire career. Special Prosecutor Goldman continually told McCullough not to destroy the audio recording or any phone logs, voicemails, or other communications in his possession and in any way related to this matter, as they may be evidence of criminal activity and continually implied that McCullough may be the focus of that criminal activity/investigation, seemingly to intimidate him into not testifying or recanting his prior testimony. It was so unsettling that Judge Taschner actually told Special Prosecutor Goldman that his statements were seemingly designed to “intimidate” the witness and “to have a chilling effect” on the witness, given his desire to testify. Clearly, given that a sitting judge felt that Special Prosecutor Goldman was being intimidating and seeking to chill McCullough, District Attorney Barratta should immediately launch an investigation into the conduct of Special Counsel Goldman and remove him from the case, pending a final determination. Regardless of Special Prosecutor Goldman’s actions, McCullough was not dissuaded from continuing to testify.

What the audio recording and Special Counsel Goldman’s actions reflect, is that this is strictly political lawfare being waged by Chair Geissinger. There were no violations of law. It was wholly concocted by Chair Geissinger, and several committee members, who clearly don’t care for the four state committee members and whom contrived a false narrative about what occurred during the June 8th meeting in order to attempt to have those four members removed. While the demeanor, alone, of the prosecutions’ witnesses would likely cause anyone making credibility determinations to find them to lack credibility, the surprise recording was the death knell for the prosecution. Unfortunately, as I said before, Judge Taschner was precluded from making any credibility determinations and was required to accept everything the Commonwealth said as the gospel, even when other evidence reflected the absolute falsity of that putative gospel. Of course, such would not prevent the district attorney from bringing charges against the prosecutions’ witnesses for perjury…

Upon the defense resting and closing arguments, Judge Taschner rendered her decision. She dismissed 6 of the 8 charges, leaving only harassment and conspiracy to commit harassment as remaining charges, which shows just how frivolous the original charges were, as Chair Geissinger couldn’t even successfully get past a preliminary hearing, with the deck being stacked solely in his favor and everything being accepted as true from their witnesses. In my opinion, the Commonwealth also failed to make out any harassment or conspiracy to commit harassment charges and I suspect that the defendants, upon receipt of the transcript, will quickly file omnibus motions with the court of common pleas to have the remaining two charges dismissed. Once all the charges are dismissed, it will be interesting to see if the defendants elect to file a federal civil rights action against Chair Geissinger and others for malicious prosecution and other civil causes of action. The waging of political lawfare could become a very expensive lesson for those involved and the Northampton County Republican Party.

As the conduct by the Chair and other members in this matter reflect extremely poorly on the the Republican Party as a whole, I hope that Chairman Tabas will immediately call a meeting to resolve the issues – by directing that the remaining charges be immediately nolle prossed – and begin to unite Northampton County and the Party.