WILLIAMSPORT -- A man who calls himself the “pissed off taxpayer” is headed to trial on charges he secretly recorded calls to Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter and a state court official and posted the conversations on his YouTube page.
However, a defiant trespass charge against Kevin Ray Bradley, 46, of the Williamsport area, filed after he refused to leave a district judge’s office in 2017, where he wanted to video himself paying a fine, has been dismissed.
That status of both cases was determined Thursday and Friday at preliminary hearings.
District Judge Aaron Biichle Thursday found there was sufficient evidence to bind over to court four felony wiretap charges related to recordings made of Slaughter on last May 5 and state Supreme Court deputy prothonotary Amy Drebelbis on May 12.
The two said they were unaware they were being recorded. An Old Lycoming Twp. police officer discovered the recordings on the YouTube page of “pissed off taxpayer,” the name Bradley uses.
Bradley called Slaughter about wanting to appeal a Superior Court ruling. The mayor referred him to state court and that is the reason for that call.
According to the evidence, neither call contained threats but Bradley did not say he was recording them.
On Friday specially assigned Columbia County Senior District Judge Richard Cashman dismissed the trespass charge.
It stemmed from Bradley on Dec. 4, 2017, refusing to leave the lobby of the office of District Judge Christian D. Frey in Williamsport after being told he could not video himself paying a fine.
Bradley is heard saying several times on the 22-minute video he shot all he wants to do is pay his fine and “get out of here.” No one came to the window to wait on him after Frey told him to leave.
City police Lt. Steven Helm initially issued Bradley a citation but, according to his testimony, on the orders of then Capt. Jodi Miller, the charge was elevated to a misdemeanor.
Bradley pleaded guilty but then filed an appeal. That caused Judge Nancy L. Butts in March 2019 to vacate the plea finding the appeal violated a plea agreement.
The case sat dormant until last May when at the direction of the district attorney’s office the misdemeanor criminal trespass charge was refiled.
Defense attorney Michael Zicolello argued for dismissal claiming the statute of limitations had expired but Cashman just said the case had been around long enough.
Bradley claims the cell phone policy Butts issued in 2015 violates his constitution rights, but the judge said he must abide by it. “It’s not the law according to Kevin Bradley,” Cashman told him.
The policy prohibits cell phones in the courthouse and the offices of the district judges.
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