UPDATED: 4:13 p.m. Aug. 17
CLEARFIELD – President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman issued an order late this afternoon granting a motion to reduce the bail of State Trooper Terry Jordan.
Jordan is accused of assaulting and threatening to shoot his wife with his service revolver, according to previous reports.
Ammerman’s order reduced Jordan’s bail from $1 million to $500,000 straight, according to a representative from the clerk of courts office.
During a hearing yesterday, Jordan’s attorney referred to Jordan’s bail as “cruel and unusual punishment.”
CLEARFIELD – A state trooper accused of assaulting and threatening to kill his wife was in court Tuesday asking for his bail to be lowered.
Terry Drew Jordan, 47, 515 Johns Dr., Clearfield, is charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, two counts of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment and three summary offenses. He was been incarcerated since the incident on April 21 on $1 million bail.
The charges stem from an incident at Jordan’s home in Lawrence Township when Jordan allegedly struck his wife in the face and slammed her head into the wall, knocking her to the floor. He kicked her numerous times, according to the affidavit of probable cause. He then allegedly held a gun to her head and said “I’m going to kill you and then kill myself.” For the complete story on the preliminary hearing in this case, click here.
During a hearing before President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman on a motion to reduce bail Tuesday, Jordan’s attorney, Bryan Walk, called Dr. Brett DiGiovanna, a forensic psychiatrist, as a witness. DiGiovanna testified by phone that he had reviewed information on Jordan and had spoken with him at the Clinton County Jail.
DiGiovanna then did a report with his findings and concluded that Jordan was a low-risk for future violence. He also stated that he did not consider Jordan to be psychopathic. But when Walk stated there was no way to guarantee that Jordan would not do something in the future, DiGiovanna agreed.
During his cross examination, District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. questioned whether DiGiovanna had reviewed any information on previous violent incidents involving Jordan. DiGiovanna replied that he only assessed the one incident for which Jordan was incarcerated and said he didn’t see any previous episodes.
Shaw pressed DiGiovanna regarding his claims that Jordan was cooperative and truthful. Shaw asked if Jordan denied having a history of fights and assault with his other marriages or girlfriends and DiGiovanna admitted that Jordan had denied having any other domestic incidents.
The commonwealth called a witness who was recently involved romantically with Jordan. She testified that she was at a Dauphin residence with Jordan when they got into an argument that became a physical altercation.
He allegedly assaulted her, chipping some of her teeth. Later he apologized, she said. She admitted they were both drinking.
In his closing argument, Walk called Jordan’s $1 million bail “cruel and unusual punishment.”
He pointed out that there is only one felony charge in this case and claimed the evidence for that charge is weak. He said the victim has a protection from abuse order to protect her and suggested Jordan be put on electronic monitoring. Walk said there was no reason to think Jordan wouldn’t show for his trial and asked the bail be lowered.
Shaw responded, saying that there was a risk of “future criminal conduct” with Jordan. When he mentioned another area case where a former trooper violated a PFA and killed his wife and himself, Walk objected saying what someone else did was irrelevant.
“He knows if she died, the case would be gone. If he kills himself, it will be gone,” Shaw noted before ending with “he poses a serious threat to his spouse and others.”
Ammerman will review the case before issuing a ruling on the motion.
