Monroe County Public Defender - Pennsylvania

10/23/2026

Congratulations are also in order for Attorney Sarah Knight on two of her recent wins! 🏆✨🏆

TLDR: Attorney successfully obtained dismissal of all charges pretrial on a habeas motion challenging the government's prima facie case!

Full tea 🫖:
The police received a non-emergency call of a vehicle parked on an access road where our client was allegedly not authorized. Once confronted by the police, our client moved his vehicle beyond the gate at their request– despite owning property adjacent to the access road and being given permission to access the same roadway by the president of the property owner’s association. During the encounter, he filmed the police and asked them for their names and badge numbers, as is his right. The police officer did not appreciate this exercise of the First Amendment. The client was then charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and defiant trespass, along with various non-traffic summaries.🙄
The offer to resolve the case was a misdemeanor disorderly conduct – the top count. Attorney Knight filed a motion to suppress along with a habeas corpus motion to dismiss for failure to meet the elements of a crime. The Commonwealth responded to Attorney Knight’s motion by saying it was adding several summaries to the charging document (not realizing those summaries already were charged, LOL). WELL, the judge decided no crime occurred – not even a summary. This means that the client was arrested without EVER having committed a crime.

SECOND VICTORY ✨✨✨✨✨

Attorney Knight won a DUI jury trial where the Commonwealth proceeded to trial DESPITE having no blood results, no field sobriety results, and no bad driving – Just an officer who said the client smelled of alcohol and made various incriminating statements that he “was drunk, just take me” and that “he was an alcoholic that should never be driving.”

COINCIDENTALLY, the motor vehicle camera had no audio capturing these very incriminating statements. The Commonwealth thought this would be enough for a conviction because “they just had to believe the officer…” It seems the evidence spoke for itself.

The client testified that he had peripheral neuropathy and a bad back which made him unable to walk or balance without the use of a walker. He was taking multiple prescribed medications for his condition. The officer never asked about the client’s medical conditions – despite the fact that the officer knew the client used a walker. He also never got a search warrant for the client’s blood because he thought it would be a “waste of time.”
The jury found him not guilty of the DUI and the Judge found him not guilty of the traffic summaries.

Whenever our clients need us, we will be there to defend them. Thank you to our clients for trusting us to do right by them. 🏆✨🏆⚖️

10/23/2026

Belated congratulations to Attorney Verina Meawad on securing a win after jury trial on this DUI case! 🏆✨

Thank you for always fighting zealously for our clients and thank you to our client for trusting us with their matters!

10/13/2026

Please join our office in welcoming and congratulating our two newest Assistant Public Defenders, Allisen Trunfio and Robert Portillo! Allisen and Rob received the fantastic news that they successfully passed the July 2026 Pennsylvania Bar Examination! 🏆🏆

Allisen Trunfio received her B.A. in Administration of Justice from Salve Regina University in 2023. She proceeded to obtain her J.D. from Roger Williams School of Law in 2026. Allisen successfully defended a DUI matter leading to a dismissal before she was even a member of the bar! 🏆✨

Robert Portillo graduated from York College of Pennsylvania in 2023 with a Bachelors of Science in Economics and minors in Finance and Legal Studies. Robert went on to receive his J.D. in 2026 from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While attending law school Robert clerked for several criminal defense attorneys and interned with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. 🏆✨

Pictured below are Allisen and Rob being sworn in by The Honorable Patrick Best of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas!

10/11/2026

More good news from the PD's office:

Our Chief of Appeals Attorney Eric Closs has prevailed before the Supreme Court of PA on a novel and creative argument that is likely to have statewide repercussions on the prosecution of cases involving claims of deception and fraud.

This case represents an effort by the government to prosecute a person for stealing public benefits - but where that person never received anything from the government she was not otherwise entitled to under the law.

Ms. Gaspard started a business, Above the Bar Soapery, in which she made and sold soap. Her business operated at a loss, but she still persisted because she enjoyed helping others and the activity helped to soothe her anxiety at night. Ms. Gaspard was also disabled and on various forms of public assistance. She reported her business to a number of the public assistance programs she applied for. However, when it came to an application for public housing, she did not report her business on the form when it asked about income. Ms. Gaspard believed she did not have any 'income', because her business did not make money, and so she did not need to list it in response on the housing form under income. The Housing Authority did not share that perspective.

When the Housing Authority employee called her one day, they heard her voicemail that identified the phone number as belonging to Above the Bar Soapery. When the employee asked Ms. Gaspard if that was her business, Ms. Gaspard readily stated it was and provided all receipts and expenses that the housing authority then requested. Ultimately, the matter was referred to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office and they chose to prosecute.

At trial, the Housing Authority testified that they never made any determination that Ms. Gaspard was ineligible for benefits in light of her business' failure to make money. Rather, they simply were rejecting her from further housing support because she had answered inaccurately on the form. Ms. Gaspard was then convicted of a statute known as "Theft by Deception." Ms. Gaspard appealed, arguing that the government had never proven that she stole anything, since she would have received the same benefit regardless of how she answered on the form. The Commonwealth opposed the appeal and argued that theft was committed when someone merely deprived the government of knowledge of one's financial circumstances and then received benefits.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with Ms. Gaspard. Our highest court explained that for someone to commit Theft by Deception, a lie must cause someone to receive public benefits when they are not entitled to it. A lie that has no 'pecuniary significance', that is does not cause the government any monetary loss, is not a violation of this particular criminal statute. Because there was no evidence Ms. Gaspard ever obtained something she would not have obtained if the truth were supplied instead, the charge was dismissed.

We are so proud of Attorney Closs' work and we are very grateful to have such a sharp legal mind on our team, fighting tirelessly on behalf of the indigent people of Monroe County. Thank you to our clients for trusting us to protect their rights and advance their causes! Pictured below is a portion of the opinion and Attorney Closs exiting oral argument at City Hall in Philadelphia.

09/29/2026

Thank you to the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania for putting together this necessary and edifying conference. Justice for all means exactly that. ⚖️

09/26/2026

This is why we need robust funding for public defense.

Equal justice begins with access to a lawyer.

A recent MassLive report on Massachusetts’ public defense crisis is a reminder that the right to counsel only matters when people can actually access it.

And access is just the beginning. Public defenders need the training, support, and resources to be the strongest advocates they can be for their clients.

That’s part of the work of Gideon’s Promise: supporting defenders in providing the client-centered, zealous representation every person deserves.

Source: MassLive, Sept. 14, 2026.

09/21/2026

Yet another Act 44 win for our Appellate Advocacy Unit! ⚖️🏆

In this case, Commonwealth v. Oglesby, our client was a first time offender who was charged with a traffic-related misdemeanor. He took responsibility, pled guilty, and apologized at sentencing, explaining that his judgment call was partly owing to a concussion he received at the time. The defense attorney and the Commonwealth both asked the court to impose probation. Instead, the sentencing court ignored the joint recommendation and gave him a jail sentence - which was an extremely unusual sentence under the law for a low level offense and a first time offender. This is known in the law as a "deviation" or "departure" from the sentencing guidelines. At the hearing, Attorney Jacob Hill properly preserved the objection to the sentence.

We appealed and claimed the sentence was an abuse of discretion because the court did not state its reasons for deviation on the record. The Superior Court rarely reverses sentences on appeal, because sentencing courts are normally afforded wide latitude to fashion an appropriate sentence. Nevertheless, the Superior Court agreed with us, reversed the sentence, and remanded for the imposition of an appropriate sentence. The Superior Court stated that "the trial court did not directly acknowledge that its sentence constituted a deviation from the aggravated range of the Sentencing Guidelines, or state its reasons for a deviation." In circumstances where the sentencing court "demonstrated its lack of awareness of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines" the sentence was an abuse of discretion and had to be vacated.

Congratulations to the AAU, specifically to Chief of Appeals Eric Closs, and to our client for this victory! 🏆⚖️

09/18/2026

The winner of the Top Dog Award today was slightly literal. Kage Closs came by to keep office morale high! 🐩💖🏆⚖️

09/17/2026

Remember when we said there were updates and tales of achievement we had reserved for you? Here's one from earlier this year. Superstar Attorneys Verina Meawad and Martín Souto Díaz went to a jury trial on a case that was charged excessively from its inception as an Attempted Homicide. The client held firm and exercised his right to a trial rather than accepting the felony plea he was offered. At trial, Attorney Meawad, assisted by Atty Souto Díaz as second chair, put on an excellent defense and undermined the credibility of the complaining witness. The jury saw through it and acquitted of all charges save for one misdemeanor count of Simple Assault! Belated Congratulations to Attorneys Meawad and Souto Díaz and thank you to our client for trusting our skilled practitioners to get the job done. ⚖️🏆👩🏽‍💼👨🏻‍💼

09/16/2026

Yesterday, Assistant Public Defender Ángela-Patricia Ramos had the immense honor and privilege to argue before the Superior Court in a special session hosted in the 1724 Chester County Courthouse. This is the oldest continuously operating municipal building and courthouse in the United States! It has seen the likes of William Penn, George Washington, General Lafayette, and other notable historical figures within its halls throughout its storied history. It is not lost on Attorney Ramos that she stands on the shoulders of all who made her entry into such a space possible. ⚖️👩🏽‍💼🏆

(We asked for permission to photograph the interior as Pennsylvania law does not allow photography inside court buildings).