WESTFIELD – A motion submitted by the attorney representing Jacob A. Lisheness will be held Friday at Westfield District Court to determine if a charge of threatening to commit a crime should be vacated.
Defense Attorney Donald Stolgitis requested that an arrest warrant for the two counts of threatening to commit a crime, stemming from an incident at the Sky Box Bar, located at 25 Point Grove Road, Southwick, should not have been issued by the Clerk Magistrate and should be vacated.
Lisheness is charged with allegedly arranging for three men “to take care of” another patron of the bar and threatening to rape and kill a bartender who witnesses the incident.
Southwick police filed a criminal complaint with the Clerk Magistrate who issued an arrest warrant, but Stolgitis argued that the Magistrate should have had a hearing at which Lisheness, 32 of Westfield, could have also testified.
Judge Philip A. Contant said that the Clerk Magistrate “made a determination that there was an immediate threat of bodily harm” to the victims of the incident and justified in issuing an arrest warrant, but granted Stolgitis’ request for a hearing on his motion.
Assistant District Attorney Edward Kivari requested time to prepare for that hearing which was then set for Friday, Oct. 2
Lisheness is being held at the Hampden County House of Correction in Ludlow without the right to bail because he violated the terms of his pre-trial release on personal recognizance when he was arrested on a second charge of trafficking cocaine.
Westfield police arrested Lisheness, Angelina G. Pagano, 22 of Westfield and Selina M. Hine, 21, of Westfield on Southwick Road after receiving information the three were returning from Hartford, Connecticut where they had taken possession of cocaine. Police discovered 57 grams of the drug in the vehicle being operated by Hine
Contant set bail at $3,000 for Lisheness on the drug trafficking charge, but ordered that Lisheness be held without the right to bail, as a danger to the community, pending his trial, because he violated his pre-trial conditions of release.
Lisheness would become eligible for bail on the drug trafficking charge if the original charged of threatening to commit a crime is vacated.
