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ENM Law News: Terorristic Threats charge dismissed at preliminary hearing

by | Oct 19, 2017 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

A client recently came to Attorney McAllister looking for help after a fight with a roommate. Our client had been charged with Terroristic Threats and his preliminary hearing was scheduled to be heard in Reading Central Court (read more about RCC here). The roommate testified that our client threatened to shoot him. The roommate admitted that he had never seen our client with a gun. While not denying the statement, Attorney McAllister argued to the magisterial district judge that it didn’t constitute a Terroristic Threat. Confused by how that can be true? Luckily, Attorney McAllister isn’t!

Pennsylvania law requires that in order for a threat to constitute a Terroristic Threat, it must be made with the intent to terrorize, or with reckless disregard that it will cause terror. Pennsylvania courts have decided that this definition does not include statements made with transitory anger (i.e., speaker didn’t intend to carry out the threat and didn’t have reason to believe that the statement would make you believe that he was going to).

In our case, Attorney McAllister argued that because our client didn’t have a gun and his roommate knew that he didn’t have a gun, there was never an intent to terrorize with the statement and no reason for the roommate to believe that he was going to follow through on the threat. The magisterial district judge dismissed the Terroristic Threats charge against our client and he was no longer facing 5 years incarceration and a $10,000 fine. If you’ve been charged with a Terroristic Threats case in Berks County, contact our knowledgeable criminal defense attorneys at 610-372-5128 or [email protected]

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