Testimony: Suspended DA assaulted wife after he was discovered with paramour; wife denies she was beaten

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A Westmoreland County woman testified on Friday that suspended Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas assaulted his wife in 2021 after she discovered him drinking with a recent lover.

But Thomas’ wife, Amy Thomas, maintained in her own testimony that injuries to her face and head were caused by a car crash after the couple’s 1 a.m. dispute.

Amy Thomas said she did not recall sending text messages to several people stating that she had been hit and “beaten” – messages to which state prosecutors handling the assault case against Jeffrey Thomas repeatedly referred during Friday’s preliminary hearing.

After more than 90 minutes of testimony, District Judge Kevin Price, of Johnstown, held all charges against Jeffrey Thomas for court, including counts of misdemeanor simple assault, reckless endangerment and harassment.

The charges stem from one of three pending cases against Jeffrey Thomas, who was suspended without pay from his duties as Somerset County’s top prosecutor last year after he was charged with sexually assaulting a Windber woman in an alleged incident unrelated to his domestic assault case.

The Tribune-Democrat does not typically identify people alleged to be victims of abuse, but Amy Thomas went public with her story and has now testified twice that the allegations against her husband are false.

Amy Thomas told the court on Friday that she drove to a bar in Johnstown’s Eighth Ward in May 2021 after she was unable to contact her husband. She said she was “angry” when she entered and saw him with a woman he’d previously said he was no longer in contact with.

“I asked the bartender if he had a tab, and I said, ‘We’re leaving,’ ” she said.

Outside, she said, she argued with her husband and “struck” him after they got into his car. She said that he prevented her from hitting him a second time by pushing her back into her seat.

“He did not strike me,” she testified.

Amy Thomas testified that she was too angry to drive home with her husband, so she told him to drop her off at her vehicle – her father-in-law’s Toyota.

She said she was visibly upset when she used the video calling app FaceTime to contact the Westmoreland County woman, a longtime acquaintance of the Thomas family – but she maintained that she never said Jeffrey Thomas struck her.

The woman at the other end of the FaceTime call, however, testified that she witnessed the act, adding that it was clear that Jeffrey Thomas struck his wife “at least 10 times” because they were driving with the vehicle’s dome light illuminated and because Amy Thomas confirmed he was hurting her.

The woman said she drove to Windber and found Amy Thomas inside Jeffrey Thomas’ parents’ home.

Amy Thomas’ clothes were torn and dirt-covered, and she had injuries to her scalp, back and arms and bruising already visible near her right eye and cheek on her tear-soaked face, the woman testified.

The woman, a Westmoreland County emergency medical technician, said she advised Amy Thomas to call the police and seek medical treatment. But she declined, the woman said.

Amy Thomas urged the woman not to say anything about the incident, the woman alleged – a promise that she kept until she heard the couple fighting again on April 9 during another FaceTime call, she added.

Amy Thomas testified that she never said her husband struck her – and that she was hurt after she spun her father-in-law’s Toyota and struck a median that night on the Johnstown Expressway.

“Did you report the accident?” Senior Deputy Attorney General Patrick Schulte said, later asking her whether she called the police.

“No,” she responded. “It wasn’t my vehicle. I called for a tow truck.”

She said her husband arrived at the scene first, and once a tow truck arrived – one belonging to Jeffrey Thomas’ father – she went home.

Schulte questioned that account, reading a series of text messages purportedly sent from Amy Thomas’ phone to the Westmoreland County woman’s stating that she had been badly beaten and didn’t do anything to deserve it.

“They don’t sound familiar to me,” Amy Thomas said.

Schulte also read almost identical messages sent from Amy Thomas’ phone to another friend’s and received the same response.

He also presented images and messages that Amy Thomas sent to her husband’s alleged paramour, saying he “beat the (expletive) out of me.” Amy Thomas confirmed sending those messages in what she said was an attempt to scare off the woman.

“I was hoping she’d stop coming around,” she said.

Jeffrey Thomas did not address the court during the preliminary hearing, which is a routine procedural step in a criminal case at which a district judge determines whether prosecutors have enough evidence against a defendant to justify taking the case to trial in a county Court of Common Pleas.

His Allegheny County attorney in the case, Joe Otte, argued that all charges should be dismissed, questioning how anyone could get a clear view of what was happening that night from a cellphone camera while “an hour away.”

In his closing argument, he told Price that the Westmoreland County woman’s testimony didn’t hold the same weight as that of someone who was inside the car – namely, Amy Thomas.

“They did not have similar vantage points,” he said. “Yes, the standard at the (preliminary hearing) level is lower ... but you heard today from the alleged victim in this case. ... (Her) testimony negates the elements of every single one of those charges.”

Schulte had a direct response.

“We don’t believe Mrs. Thomas is telling the truth,” he said, adding that text messages, photos and contradicting testimony are “sufficient” to send the case to trial.

Price also agreed that prosecutors met their legal burden.

“I understand the defense argument and position,” the district judge said, “but the purpose of this hearing is not to establish (whether Thomas is innocent or guilty). That’s for a judge or jury to decide.”

Judge maintains no-contact order

In court, both Jeffrey Thomas and Amy Thomas attempted to convince the judge to cease a “no-contact” order that prohibits them from communicating directly or indirectly with one another while the case is pending.

Otte made a formal request, and Amy Thomas, who is an attorney, sent a letter to Price on law firm letterhead urging him to drop the order, saying it violates her “constitutional right to marriage.” She also emailed the letter to The Tribune-Democrat.

“At the core of individual autonomy is the fundamental right to make decisions important to one’s own destiny,” she said, adding that the order has made parenting and bill-paying too difficult.

Price denied the motion, noting that Supreme Court- appointed Cambria County Senior Judge Timothy Creany issued a no-contact order as a condition of Jeffrey Thomas’ bond.

Thomas has been permitted to remain free on bond while on 24/7 electronic monitoring at his parents’ home – a stipulation imposed after he was charged with pursuing a prosecution witness and striking his car in late March. That case is awaiting a summary hearing in Somerset County.