Tomorrow is the sentencing hearing and I see that LUPAS once again has paid to have the victims family members brought in from New York and elsewhere to attend Hugo's trial. Get this: they were sighted in Dallas trying to scare the Selenski family members! God knows what they have planned, but LUPAS and the rest of Luzerne County will be blamed if anything happens to any of the Selenski family members! These are some seriously crazy people, and the county keeps paying to bring them back into our community. Does anyone else besides me have a serious problem with this? If these are such innocent victims, then what are they doing threatening Hugo's family members? What has Hugo's family done to anyone? Send these drug lords back to where they belong and for good this time!

Isn't it funny how they want to blame the tight security on the "energized courtroom" they are expecting. They are so quick to say it's the words exchanged between the 2 families during Hugo's trial, instead of admitting it was the urban drug lords shouting threats at Hugo and his family. The county is just as scared as any normal person would be - so they need to stop making it look like Hugo is the security reason and the monster here. We all know who the real monsters are here and the county paid their whole tab. I guess the county wants to keep the drugs in Luzerne county - hmmm...really makes you think!

The following is an article taken from The Citizens Voice newspaper.
County will tighten security for Selenski hearing Monday. When Hugo Selenski is sentenced Monday, May 1st on two counts of abuse of a corpse, Luzerne County Sheriff Barry Stankus will increase security to ensure everyone in the courtroom keeps their emotions under control.
Every person who enters Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.’s courtroom must pass through security and metal detectors in addition to an initial search when they enter the River Street courthouse. The security procedures are identical to those at Selenski’s murder trial in March.
Stankus expects to subdue what could be an energized courtroom by assigning numerous deputy sheriffs to security detail. Selenski’s family members and family members of murder victims Frank James and Adeiye Keiler, who exchanged words on occasions during the trial, are expected to be in the courtroom.
“Security is going to be tight that day,” Stankus said. “We’re going to take every necessary precaution to keep everyone in check.”
Selenski faces a maximum of four years in prison on the abuse of corpse charges, but may be given credit for time served. Selenski has been in jail almost three years awaiting trial on separate double-homicide charges.

Attorney Demetrius Fannick will represent Selenski during the sentencing, but that will end his involvement with Selenski. Hugo's hands-on approach, not money, is what discouraged Fannick from defending Hugo.

Attorneys for Hugo Selenski want him moved from state prison to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. He should be in a cell at the county prison, not a state prison, said Hugo's attorneys.

Attorneys John Pike and Steve Menn on Monday filed court papers asking a judge to move Selenski from the State Correctional Institution at Dallas to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility until the end of his trial.

Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. scheduled a hearing on the request for May 1.

Selenski, 32, was initially jailed at the county prison in Wilkes-Barre in June 2003. In October 2003, he escaped from the prison. He surrendered three days later and was held at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas in Jackson Township. He returned to the county prison for his trial in the James and Keiler deaths in February and March.

Pike said police, after charging Selenski with the Kerkowski and Fassett deaths, took Hugo back to the state prison, not the county prison. The attorney is unsure why Selenski was taken to the state prison or who made the decision to take him there. However - he hopes Selenski will be brought back to the county prison, as are most defendants awaiting trial, because he needs more access to Selenski in order to properly prepare for the Kerkowski and Fassett case.

It would be more logical for Selenski to be held at the county prison because it is located near Pike’s law office in Kingston and the attorney is restricted to visiting Selenski on only Tuesdays and Fridays at the state prison. Pike noted Selenski was held at the county prison for about a month during his trial in the James and Keiler deaths “without incident.”

Selenski’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 10 before District Judge James Tupper in Trucksville, Kingston Township. Tupper will determine whether investigators have enough evidence to take Selenski to trial in county court.

Article taken from The Times Leader.

Hugo Selenski will be familiar with two attorneys chosen to defend him in his latest homicide case.

Attorneys John Pike and Steve Menn were appointed Friday to defend Selenski on his charges in the deaths of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett.

They helped him in his first case - so attorney Pike realized he and Menn were an appropriate fit to defend Selenski in the second case.

“It’s just logical that one or both of us were going to be appointed,” said Pike, a 10-year member of the conflict attorney group.

The two attorneys, part of a group of public attorneys called conflict counsel, assisted lead attorney Demetrius Fannick in March in clearing Selenski of killing two drug dealer suspects.

Pike said the matter was discussed Friday with Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. The judge later issued an order appointing the duo to defend Selenski.

A third defense attorney will be appointed to the team later, Pike said. Pike is unsure who that attorney will be. He said he will check first if any other conflict attorneys want to volunteer.

How the system works:

Conflict attorneys are not automatically appointed to cases, Pike said.

If a defendant needs to be represented by a public defender, the defendant first has to apply for representation through that office, Pike said.

The public defender will determine if any conflict of interest exists in representing the defendant.

A conflict, Pike said, could arise when two or more people are arrested in the same case. If one of those defendants is represented by a public defender, the others cannot be. Or, he said, if witnesses in the case are represented by public defenders, the defendant also cannot be represented by public defenders.

If the public defenders determine a conflict exists, they petition a judge to have a conflict attorney appointed. Each conflict attorney is paid around $25,000 per year.

Pike said the conflict attorneys are appointed on a rotating list.

But not any attorney can be appointed to a death-penalty case, Pike said.

The attorney must have 18 credits from legal classes and seminars and have completed at least eight significant felony trials.

“Then you could be lead counsel,” Pike said.

Without those qualifications, an attorney could assist on the defense team, Pike said.

Currently, Pike and Menn meet those standards. Other conflict attorneys are in the process of being qualified, he said.

Here is a list of the attorneys who make up Luzerne County’s conflict counsel group:

• John Pike

• Steve Menn

• Paul Galante

• Sam Falcone

• Joe Cosgrove

• Mike Senape

• Bob Davison

• Joe Nocito

• Gerald Wassil

• Mark Bufalino

• Matt Kelly

• Brian Corcoran

How could you say shame on everyone involved in the Hugo Selenski Trial? Did you attend this double murder trial? If you did, you would know those jurors did the best job they could have done. They reached their verdict based on the evidence that was presented before them.

What did you want them to do, find a false verdict based on what they believed personally or what they heard or saw in the media? If you’re on a jury, you’re not supposed to do that. You are supposed to reach a verdict by the evidence presented in court only.

I happen to believe the lawyers did a good job also. The prosecution did the best job they could do with what they had (which was practically nothing) but they still did their job to the best of their ability. I also believe the defense attorney did a super job, when most people had this defendant already convicted.

Have you ever stopped to think about all of the evidence presented and said to yourself, “Maybe this defendant really is innocent?” Don’t blame the system, lawyers and especially the jurors because the verdict wasn’t one that maybe you yourself didn’t want to hear.

My sympathies go out to the victims’ families also. I can’t even imagine the pain they are going through and I hope someday they do get closure.

Let us not forget that the defendant himself also has a family hurting. I am sure of one thing in Luzerne County, and that is society has every defendant here convicted before they are given a fair trial.

Lisa Davies
Kingston