Three months after an Allegheny County judge denied bail to a suspect accused of torturing a man in Sewickley, an appeals court ruled that he must be granted bail.
Pennsylvania law says that every criminal defendant is entitled to bail unless they face a potential life prison term or there is no combination of bail conditions that could ensure the safety of the community.
In the case of Noah Storm Sadowski, accused of the torture and kidnapping of a 60-year-old man in Sewickley, prosecutors argued at his April bail hearing that the details of the crime were so egregious that he should not be released pretrial.
They also read a letter from the alleged victim expressing the man’s fear if Sadowski was to be released.
The judge agreed with the district attorney’s office and ordered Sadowski to remain in custody pending trial.
But Sadowski’s defense attorney appealed to the state Superior Court, arguing the prosecution failed to present adequate evidence against his client to hold him.
On Thursday, the appellate panel agreed, remanding the case back to the trial court with an order to set bail.
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office said in a statement Friday it was reviewing its options in the matter.
Sadowski, 33, of Sewickley, is charged along with Dylan Morris, 30, of Glenfield, with dozens of counts, including kidnapping, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and conspiracy.
They are both being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
Investigators said that the two believed a 60-year-old man in Sewickley had taken a gold Rolex from them, and they wanted to get it back.
According to police, Sadowski and Morris went to the alleged victim’s home on Little Street in Sewickley on April 7 and violently attacked him over a period of five hours — so long, the prosecution said, that they stopped to make a meal while they were there.
The affidavit accuses Sadowski and Morris of gluing the victim’s eyes shut, urinating on him and burning him with cigarettes. In its court filings, the prosecution said the defendants also pistol whipped the victim, repeatedly poked him with a knife, gagged him and then held his nose shut to prevent him from breathing.
They were charged on April 9.
Sadowski requested a bail hearing, which began on April 15 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.
At that hearing, defense attorney Aaron Sontz asked that his client be released to electronic home monitoring. He presented several letters of support and evidence of Sadowski’s strong ties to the community. Sontz also called three witnesses, including a community organizer who offered their home to Sadowski to use if he was released on house arrest.
Sontz also argued for his client’s need for drug and alcohol and mental health treatment.
At that proceeding, the prosecution did not call any witnesses and did not cross-examine those who testified for Sadowski.
They presented no evidence, stating only, “We ask for a no release as well due to the nature of the charges.”
At the time, Borkowski took the matter under advisement and ordered that Sadowski receive an evaluation by the county’s Behavior Assessment Unit.
After that review was completed, the parties returned to court on April 25 to conclude the bail hearing.
While the assessment unit recommended Sadowski be referred to the county’s Justice Related Services program, receive outpatient mental health therapy and follow a treatment plan, the prosecution continued to urge the court to deny Sadowski’s request for bail.
The district attorney’s office presented two pictures of the alleged victim’s injuries and read a letter from him telling the court he feared what could happen if Sadowski was released. They also cited the recommendation from pre-trial services, which said that Sadowski should not be released.
Borkowski denied bail later that day. Sadowski appealed to the state Superior Court.
In his appeal, Sontz wrote that the commonwealth failed to present adequate proof that Sadowski presents a danger to any individual or the community which could not be addressed through specific bail conditions.
Sontz suggested electronic home monitoring.
In the prosecution’s response, the district attorney’s office recounted the lurid details of the crime and argued that Borkowski had sufficient evidence before him to deny bond.
“The record supports the lower court’s decision to deny petitioner bail. The nature of the offenses charged weigh overwhelmingly in favor of the outright denial of bail,” the prosecution wrote.
But in a brief, four-page opinion issued Thursday, the state Superior Court said that the district attorney’s office failed to meet its burden at the bail hearing. The court said that the prosecution did not establish that Sadowski presented a danger to the community that could not be cured by some combination of bail conditions.
Under state Supreme Court precedent, the trial court must be able to evaluate the quality of the evidence and “cannot rely upon a cold record or untested assertions alone.”
The Superior Court said merely relying on the criminal complaint in a case — and a proffer by the prosecution — is not sufficient.
“The Commonwealth failed to call any witnesses or cross-examine any of the defense witnesses at either bail proceeding in the trial court,” the Superior Court wrote. “Moreover, the Commonwealth did not present any evidence regarding several of the factors set forth in [the precedential case.]”
The court remanded the issue to the trial court to grant bail “pursuant to any conditions of bail imposed as permitted by law.”
Borkowski on Friday declined comment.
Sontz praised the court’s ruling, saying the appeal was necessary.
“The hearing was just so deficient in terms of what the commonwealth did,” Sontz said. “They didn’t even try to comply with the law in the first place.”
The prosecution was required to show that Sadowski could not be adequately supervised in the community and failed to do so, the attorney said.
“Allegheny County does a lot of things the way they always have done them — business as usual,” Sontz said. “And a lot of the things they do are wrong.”
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2019 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.