By NATASHA BRENNEMAN
Staff writer
A trial for a Knox man facing more than 40 sex-related charges, including 10 counts of rape, has been moved to July.
Thomas Edward Servey, 57, was scheduled to go on trial last week, but Clarion County President Judge James Arner granted a motion filed by District Attorney Mark Aaron for a continuance. Aaron said Tuesday that DNA evidence necessary for the trial had not been received from a lab.
Servey’s jury trial is now scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday, July 14.
Meanwhile, on the same day last week that the trial was postponed, Public Defender Erich Spessard requested that Servey be released on bail in accordance with a rule that doesn’t allow a person to be held in jail for more than 180 days without a trial or the opportunity to be released on nominal bail.
Arner granted Spessard’s motion, and Servey’s $50,000 bail was reduced to $1. He was released from jail Monday and will be free on bail until the trial.
The investigation into Servey’s case began in September 2016, when Clarion state police were sent to Servey’s residence. Police said in a criminal complaint they found Servey and a juvenile girl unclothed in a bedroom having sexual intercourse.
The girl told police in an interview that Servey had sexually abused her several times previously, according to the complaint.