Ex-Lancaster cop released on bail pending trial in sexual assault cases

• By Dan Nephin/LNP | LancasterOnline

Andrew Scott Selby, the ex-Lancaster city police officer charged with sexually assaulting or trying to sexually assault five underage females when he was on the force in the late 1990s, was released from prison Tuesday after posting $25,000.

Selby, 54, of Pequea Township, was released after a bail review hearing Tuesday morning during which Chester County Senior Judge William P. Mahon reduced the amount of bail that had been set in two cases.

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

Assistant Lancaster County District Attorney Elizabeth Mae Lapp reiterated her previous argument that high cash bail was warranted because of the nature of the charges and the potential that Selby could flee if convicted given how much prison time he could face. Selby’s bail in the two cases at hand had been set at a total of $1.5 million.

Mahon, however, said other factors he is obligated to consider under the law favored setting reasonable bail.

They include Selby’s family and community ties, work history and the fact that he’s never been arrested before.

Mahon also said he didn’t know the likelihood of conviction.

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

Lapp said the prosecution did not present all its evidence at Selby’s preliminary hearings that resulted in virtually all charges being held for court. Rather, she said, prosecutors only had to put on a prima facie case. “Prima facie” is a legal term meaning there’s enough evidence to show a crime may have happened and the defendant may have committed it.

Selby’s attorney, Paul Walker, noted that just because Selby had been held for trial after preliminary hearings does not mean there’s a strong likelihood of conviction.

“They’ve got serious identification issues,” he said.

Stone was referring to Selby’s last preliminary hearing, during which a woman testified that she was staying at her aunt’s friend’s house when she was around 12 or 13 years old and a Black man tried to assault her. She did not know who Selby was and did not identify him in court. Instead, her aunt’s friend testified that Selby was the only Black man at her house during the time.

Wife wants him home

As at the last bail hearing, Selby’s wife, Jessica Selby, who works in Lancaster County’s adult probation department, testified briefly.

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

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

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

Jessica Selby also outlined her husband’s medical conditions. He had triple bypass surgery last May and has a neurological condition that causes dizziness and if “a full one comes on” he can’t move, she said.

Selby’s bail conditions include house arrest with electronic monitoring, and he cannot have any contact with his accusers and must surrender any passports.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Mahon to supervise Selby’s cases after Lancaster County’s judges recused themselves to avoid any possible conflict because Selby worked in local law enforcement.

The next steps in Selby’s cases will be for the prosecution to begin sharing its evidence with Shelby’s defense team. A trial date has not been scheduled.

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

YWCA Lancaster runs a 24-hour sexual assault hotline, 717-392-7273, that connects callers to free, confidential counseling and therapy services for community members impacted by sexual abuse, harassment or assault.