Courts: Man Posts $50K Bail in Alleged Rock Throwing Incident

Following a tearful testimony by a victim on Thursday in district court, Judge Theodore Michaels raised the bail for Michael Wade to $50,000 from $25,000.

All charges were held for court. A charge of giving false information to a police officer was withdrawn in the case. Wade, 40, with a last known address in Phoenixville, is through windows of a home in the 2500 block of Overture Drive in the Northridge Village development in Phoenixville. According to the criminal complaint, Wade also violated a protection from abuse order by being on the property that night.

A woman was at the home babysitting her two grandchildren at the time of the alleged incident, which occurred shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 9. She testified that she was “scared to death” after hearing the rocks come through the window. The commotion created “sounded like a bomb,” she told the judge, as she recounted crawling from the kitchen on her belly to the upstairs rooms where her grandchildren were sleeping.

The alleged victim testified that her 8-year-old grandson “had such fear in his face” when she entered the room due to the noise the stones made as they shattered the glass, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing on Thursday.

In tears, the woman told the judge a rock had broken a window near where she often sits with her youngest grandchild. She told the judge that her or the child could have been hurt in the incident.

“It’s a horrible, horrible thought,” she testified.

Though she told the judge she didn't see the person who hit the windows with rocks, she was sure it was Wade.

"He's been terrorizing my family," she testified.

Corporal Bryan MacIntyre of the Phoenixville Police Department then took the stand, telling the judge that two windows on the middle floor and one on the bottom floor were shattered in the home when he arrived on scene that night. According to MacIntyre’s testimony, large, decorative stones were used to break the windows.

The corporal also explained that he’d responded to "many incidents" at that residence, and he said he knew Wade from previous contacts.

Following testimony, Anna Frederick, the public defender representing Wade, argued that the reckless endangering charges were unfounded. Josh Rudolph of the Chester County District Attorney’s office argued that Wade’s alleged actions were reckless and could have endangered the people in the home at the time, and Rudolph said there was a chance for death or injury from the rocks thrown through the windows.

Michaels agreed with the argument and held all reckless endangering charges for court, in addition to charges of stalking, loitering, harassment, public drunkenness and criminal mischief.

Saying he considered Wade a flight risk due to a failure to appear on past driving under the influence charges, Michaels explained he was not inclined to modify the $25,000 cash bail that Wade was being held on. Wade also faced a hearing on violating a protection from abuse order stemming from the same Oct. 9 incident.

After hearing from Wade’s estranged wife, the judge raised bail to $50,000.

“We believe there would be a threat” if Wade made bail, Rudolph told the judge.

Wade posted the $50,000 bail on Oct. 17. The charges now move on to county court, and a formal arraignment date is set for Oct. 27.

One Charge Dismissed in Alleged Grocery Theft

Also in district court on Thursday, a preliminary hearing for Debra Rojinsky, 56, of Royersford, was held.

She’s accused of worth $461 out of the supermarket at 700 Nutt Road on Oct. 9 without paying. Following the hearing, bail was changed to unsecured. Rojinsky had previously posted 10 percent of her $5,000 bail.

Rojinsky’s attorney argued against the charges. Michaels agreed that he was having a hard time seeing the misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge as anything more than “a garden-variety summary offense.”

Allegedly, when Rojinsky was leaving the scene she jumped in her vehicle and fled, hitting another vehicle in the process of fleeing. Rudolph argued that that enough to warrant the misdemeanor charge.

“That’s creating a substantial risk and it’s definitely reckless,” Rudolph told the judge.

Michaels dismissed the misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and the remaining charges—felony retail theft, felony receiving stolen property and a felony charge for a criminal attempt at retail theft—were all held for county court.

A formal arraignment date is set for Nov. 3.