Jul 25, 2016 3 min read

Washington County prosecutors plan to move forward with two cases that are more than a decade old in light of a state appellate court ruling.

The Superior Court Friday reversed a decision by county Judge Valarie Costanzo Friday to dismiss charges against 33-year-old Darel Barbour, whose last known address was on West Katherine Avenue in Washington.

Costanzo’s decision last year was based on Rule 600, which gives prosecutors in Pennsylvania 365 days from when a case is filed to bring it to trial.

Barbour failed to appear for a trial in October 2004 in cases stemming from a 2002 vehicle accident and his alleged involvement in a 2003 robbery.

A memorandum explaining the reasoning of the majority of the three-judge panel hearing the appeal stated, by not showing up for his trial, Barbour “voluntarily absented himself from the grasp of the trial court for a decade. We cannot condone such behavior by permitting a defendant to file a motion to dismiss under Rule 600 after returning from 10 years as a fugitive.”

The cases the ruling concerns were filed in August 2003.

In one, Washington police charged Barbour with accident involving damage to an attended vehicle, driving without a valid license, not having insurance and a misdemeanor drug charge. Police alleged Barbour was driving a Buick in November 2002 when it struck another vehicle on East Maiden Street, then kept driving before police arrested him. Marijuana was allegedly found in the car when it was impounded.

Also that month, East Washington police charged him with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, robbery, theft and conspiracy, saying Barbour was allegedly with two other men during a robbery July 14, 2003, at an apartment on South Wade Street. One of Barbour’s companions was said to have threatened the two victims with a gun.

One of Barbour’s co-defendants pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the incident; the other, no contest.

Bench warrants in the two cases were issued when Barbour, free on bond at the time, didn’t come to court for his trial the following year.

Barbour was arrested in September 2014. His attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges under Rule 600 the following month before Barbour’s trial was set to begin. Costanzo granted the motion in January 2015.

In an opinion Costanzo submitted to the Superior Court, the judge said prosecutors missed the 365-day window to bring Barbour to trial in 2004. The opinion states she “simply cannot ignore the fact that the commonwealth waited over a year, without reasonable justification, to bring either of these cases to trial.”

In a brief appealing her decision, Assistant District Attorney Jerry Moschetta alleged Barbour “deliberately avoided” the court system for 10 years to evade prosecution until he was apprehended.

“We did have a philosophical difference on the effect being a fugitive from justice for 10 years had on the confines of Rule 600,” Moschetta said.

He said the office will ask the court to move forward with setting a trial for the cases.