York Mayor Kim Bracey’s son in treatment following attack, attorney says
York Mayor Kim Bracey (left) and her son Brandon Anderson (Photo: Submitted)
(York) — The son of York Mayor Kim Bracey is receiving treatment at a facility in the northern part of Pennsylvania, his attorney said after a Wednesday court hearing.
Brandon Terrell Anderson, 31, did not attend with his attorney, Chris Ferro, during a brief preliminary hearing at District Judge Joel Toluba’s office.
The 31-year-old York resident and City of York employee is facing charges in connection with the Sept. 30 assault on Bracey.
Frank Clark, the arresting York City Police officer, sat beside Seth Bortner, a senior deputy prosecutor with the York County District Attorney’s Office, inside the judge’s courtroom on Wednesday.
There was no testimony. Instead, Bortner said to the judge that, after speaking with Ferro, the attorney was willing to stipulate to what Clark laid out in his affidavit of probable cause. Ferro said later that he was not acknowledging specifics of the case, but instead the hearing was a method to move the case forward.
Clark’s affidavit recounts in a brief few sentences how Anderson allegedly punched and kicked Bracey at her campaign headquarters late on the morning of Sept. 30. He also attempted to use a wooden flag pole to strike her, the record states.
After looking over some paperwork, Toluba said that the case will be held for court, meaning moving forward to the York County Court of Common Pleas.
There have been few public remarks about Anderson since the assault. But, in a statement released Oct. 6, Bracey said that her son was battling an opioid addiction.
Court records indicate that the district judge who arraigned Anderson on Sept. 30 sent him from Central Booking to York Hospital to be evaluated for possible inpatient treatment.
Ferro declined to answer questions about what type of facility Anderson is in, when he got there or how long he will be there.
“He’s doing very well,” Ferro said of Anderson. “I think he’s going to continue to do well. Obviously, people make mistakes. People have challenges in their life. I think this young man is owning up to both of those.”
He continued, “I firmly believe there’s a solution to this problem. We’re going to find it. But it’s just not why we’re here today.”
He described Wednesday as a “procedural matter” in trying to get the case to a point where they can start making some decisions and “hopefully come to a non-trial resolution.”
Next steps in the case will include a pre-trial conference, likely to be set in the new year. Ferro said he expects further conversations to take place over the next couple of months between himself and the York County District Attorney’s Office.
Anderson is on paid leave from his job at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, where he was hired in 2007, according to city officials and employment records.
This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.
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