Former Lancaster police officer released on bail pending trial in sexual assault cases

Andrew Scott Selby, the former Lancaster police officer accused of sexually assaulting or attempting to assault five underage girls while on duty in the late 1990s, was released from prison Tuesday in exchange for a $25,000 fine.

Selby, 54, of Pequea Township was released Tuesday morning following a bail review hearing during which Chester County Judge William P. Mahon reduced bail on two counts.

A month ago, Mahon set bail at 10% of $50,000 in each of the three cases in which a district judge had initially denied bail. Tuesday’s hearing dealt with new charges filed after the original charges, and Mahon ended up setting the same bail.

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Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Mae Lapp reiterated her previous argument that a high bail was justified due to the nature of the charges and the possibility that Selby could flee if convicted, given the lengthy prison sentence he could face. Selby’s bail in the two cases at hand had been set at a total of $1.5 million.

However, Mahon said other factors he is required to consider under the law support setting an appropriate bail amount.

These include Selby’s family and social ties, his professional history and the fact that he has never been arrested before.

Mahon also said he did not know how likely a conviction was.

“These are 25-year-old cases… I don’t know what the Commonwealth case is,” he said.

Lapp said prosecutors did not present all of the evidence at Selby’s preliminary hearings, which resulted in virtually all of the charges going to trial. Rather, she said, prosecutors only had to make a prima facie case. “Prima facie” is a legal term that means there is enough evidence to prove a crime could have occurred and the defendant could have committed it.

Selby’s lawyer Paul Walker pointed out that the fact that Selby was brought to trial after the preliminary hearings does not mean that a conviction is very likely.

“They have serious identification problems,” he said.

Stone referred to Selby’s last preliminary hearing, where a woman testified that when she was about 12 or 13 years old, she was staying at her aunt’s friend’s house and a black man tried to attack her. She did not know who Selby was and did not mention his name in court. Instead, her aunt’s friend testified that Selby was the only black man in her house at the time.

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READ: Police investigated a former Lancaster police officer for sexual assault in 1999, but the former prosecutor did not file charges

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Woman wants him home

As she did at the last bail hearing, Selby’s wife, Jessica Selby, who works in the Lancaster County Adult Probation Department, gave a brief statement.

“I would love to have him at home,” said Jessica Selby, who has been married to her husband for 16 years.

She said she had only heard positive things about her husband, even from people who had dealings with him in the late 1990s when he was a police officer. Those people said he was fair to them, she said.

Lapp said at an earlier hearing that Shelby resigned in 2000 after being given an ultimatum to either resign or be fired following an internal investigation into something “sexual in nature.”

Jessica Selby also described her husband’s health condition. He had triple bypass surgery last May and suffers from a neurological condition that causes dizziness, and when “complete vertigo occurs,” he cannot move, she said.

Selby’s bail conditions include house arrest with electronic monitoring, no contact with his accusers and the surrender of all passports.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Mahon to oversee Selby’s cases after Lancaster County judges recused themselves to avoid potential conflicts over the fact that Selby worked for the local police force.

The next step in Selby’s case will be for the prosecution to begin turning over its evidence to Shelby’s defense. A trial date has not yet been set.

The charges against Selby include rape, child molestation, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, sexual assault and other related charges and stem from an investigation that began in March when a woman told city police that Selby raped her in the late 1990s when she was 16.

The YWCA Lancaster operates a 24/7 Sexual Assault Hotline at 717-392-7273. It connects callers to free, confidential counseling and therapy services for community members experiencing sexual abuse, harassment or assault.