A Monroe County man who threatened a Carbon County district justice and assaulted a guard at the county prison entered guilty pleas in the county court on Thursday.

Mohammad R. Shah, 52, of East Stroudsburg, entered guilty pleas before Judge Joseph J. Matika to one count of terroristic threat - unlawful harm to a judicial/administrative process, involving District Judge Casimir Kosciolek in Lansford and his staff; aggravated assault - attempt to cause or causes bodily harm to a designated individuals, for the assault on the prison guard; and a count of theft for an incident in Nesquehoning.

The threat and assault counts are felonies while the theft is a misdemeanor.

In the case involving Kosciolek, charges of retaliation against prosecutor or judicial official, threats, terroristic threats and obstructing administrative law or other government function were dropped. The incident occurred on Sept. 12, 2019.

Shah’s contacts with the law began with the Nesquehoning theft incident which occurred on Aug. 19, 2019. In that case he was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, terrorist threats, theft by unlawful taking and harassment. All the charges except the theft count were dropped in a plea deal.

The assault of the guard occurred on Aug. 25, 2020.

Case history

The affidavit for the second incident was filed by Detective Timothy Nothstein of the Carbon County District Attorney’s office.

It states that the hearing for the burglary charge was to be held Aug. 28 before Kosciolek in Lansford. On Aug. 21, the hearing was rescheduled until Sept. 18. A continuance paper was given to Shah, who wrote obscenities on the signature line.

On Sept. 11, another continuance occurred. On the signature line where Shah was supposed to write his name, he wrote, “(Expletive), my milennia (sic) is coming you filthy (expletive) criminals. …” He also mentioned the Second Amendment and said, in part, “you will have no place to run we will hunt you down jails will be full streets will be blood.”

The affidavit says, “The content on the note caused Judge Kosciolek and his staff to fear that Shah would attempt acts of violence toward them and their office.” It adds, “Due to the fears and concerns shared by the judge and his staff, Judge Kosciolek recused himself from Shah’s case.”

While an inmate at the county prison on the pending charges Shad struck a corrections officer in the face. It was an unprovoked attack.

On Thursday, defense attorney Robert A. Saurman of Stroudsburg said that Shah has been suffering from mental health issues his entire life.

He said since his arrest on the charges he spent three months in the Norristown State Hospital and a considerable amount of time in an inpatient mental health program.

He said Shah’s mental health issues caused his problems at the prison.

He said his client was paranoid, seeing things that weren’t there and thinking people were after him.

He said since his treatment, which he is continuing, he is a different man and has not been a problem.

The corrections officer who was the victim of the assault read a statement to the court citing how the incident has continued to affect her life. She said she has her own mental health issues since the incident and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She also claimed she was upset when the Assistant District Attorney Brian B. Gazo, who is prosecutor in the case, called her to ask her to drop the charges because of Shah’s mental health condition.

Gazo, however, took issue with that statement, saying he only asked her if she would agree to a plea to simple assault. He said when the victim objected, he said he had the defendant plead to the felony aggravated assault, which the victim wanted.

Matika said it was obvious that Shah’s mental health issues were at the root of the problems.

He added, “We don’t have the proper resources in the correction facility to deal with these types of issues.”

On the assault count, Matika sentenced Shah to serve six to 23 months in prison followed by three years of probation; on the threats charge the same sentence running concurrently; and on the theft charge, one year probation, running concurrently.

Shah was also ordered to have no contact with any of the victims in the threats and assault cases, supply a DNA sample, continue is current mental health treatment program, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on parole and probation.

He will not spend any more time in prison as he was given credit for over 400 days spent in jail and in the inpatient mental health programs which surpasses the jail term imposed.