Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PITTSTON — A man accused of a pistol-whipping assault that led officers on a search and to the discovery of a meth lab, is heading to higher court on charges.
That man is the same man who escaped with convicted murderer Hugo Selenski from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in 2003.
Scott Bolton, 52, appeared before District Judge Alexandra Kokura Kravitz for a preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Per an agreement, Bolton waived charges of simple assault, terroristic threats, harassment and disorderly conduct to higher court. Two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct were withdrawn.
Bolton is expected to plead guilty to the charges he waived onto higher court as part of the agreement.
On June 9, Duryea Police Department officers were dispatched to the 300 block of McAlpine Street overnight Tuesday for a report of the assault.
The two victims reported they were assaulted by a man they knew, later identified as Bolton, telling police he struck them in the head with a handgun. Officers from multiple surrounding towns assisted Duryea officers in the investigation and in searching for Bolton, who fled into the woods, police said.
Officers later returned to the residence where the alleged incident occurred and discovered a possible disabled meth lab in the backyard, police said.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force apprehended Bolton on Aug. 11 inside a condemned home in Duryea.
Bolton previously was involved in convicted murderer Hugo Selenski’s 2003 escape from the county prison. Selenski safely climbed out through a window using a rope made of bed sheets, but Bolton was injured in a fall during the escape attempt.
A jury in February 2015 convicted Selenski of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 3, 2002, flex-tie strangulation killings of Michael Jason Kerkowski and Tammy Lynn Fassett.
Bolton is scheduled for a formal arraignment at 9 a.m. on June 5 in the Luzerne County Courthouse. He remains jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.