Suspended Somerset County DA being held in Cambria Prison until sentencing

EBENSBURG — Suspended Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas will await sentencing under “protective custody” inside Cambria County Prison for his assault conviction, the prison’s warden said.

In doing so, he’ll spend the next two months in a private cell.

However, the fact he’ll be segregated from the rest of the prison’s approximately 400 inmates also means he’ll spend most of his day inside his cell, Cambria County Prison Warden Christian Smith said.

Protective custody inmates eat all three meals inside their holding cell — rather than a communal “day room.”

They receive just two hours of recreation time outside Monday through Friday because general population inmates circulate in those areas the remainder of the day, he said.

Telephone use is limited to three times a week for the same reason, Smith added.

“Inmates are using those phones all day long. So if someone isn’t permitted to be around other inmates … they can’t be there at the same time,” Smith said, noting Thomas will also be prevented from joining a work crew for the same reason.

Until he was arrested in September 2021, Thomas was signing off on criminal complaints that lodged people in Somerset’s jail, making safety in his home county another point of concern.

Somerset County Deputy Warden Brian Pelesky noted Thomas also served on the prison board prior to his arrest, creating a “conflict of interest-type” situation.

“This is why we have agreements with other jails. Even in a situation where it’s a county officer’s next of kin, we take this step, so no one can say someone was treated any different here than any other inmate,” Pelesky said. “It’s in the best interest of both parties … the jail and the inmate.”

Somerset County officials reached out to Cambria County about housing Thomas last week, Smith said.

“It’s not uncommon. We do the same thing in Cambria County anytime we have a former law enforcement officer or corrections officer who ends up serving time,” said Smith, noting their risk of harm is higher.

“It’s for their own safety.”

Cambria, Blair, Somerset, Bedford and Centre counties have agreements in place for cases such as these, Smith said.

Thomas was convicted on six counts for assaulting and strangling a Windber woman after entering her apartment without her permission, a Somerset County jury found.

Thomas is also awaiting trial on a separate Cambria County simple assault case, meaning there may be occasions where he’d be transported to the nearby courthouse.

Thomas’ unrelated simple assault case stems from allegations he struck his wife while they were traveling in a vehicle from Johnstown to Windber in 2020. A woman testified in a preliminary hearing in 2022 that she witnessed the altercation during a FaceTime web call with Thomas’ wife, Amy.

Both Amy and Jeff Thomas have said the story is false.

The case was continued last month to the May term of criminal court.

Because of the nature of some of his Somerset County crimes, Thomas is set to undergo a sex offenders assessment board evaluation to determine whether he is a sexually violent predator.

Court-appointed Senior Judge Timothy Creany scheduled sentencing for May 16 to allow time for that assessment to be completed prior to the hearing.

He indicated the sentencing will be rescheduled, if necessary, to enable the board’s review to be completed.