With Judge Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr. residing over the Bryan Kocis homicide trial, to which Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes both stand accused. I thought it would be interesting to provide a bit of a background bio as to who Olszewski is:
- Born in 1959, in Wilkes-Barre, son of Hon. Peter Paul Sr. and June Olszewski.
- Graduted from Meyers H.S. in 1977.
- Graduted from Penn State University (B.A.), prelaw with distinction in 1981.
- Graduted from Dickinson School of Law (J.D.) in 1984.
- Elected District Attorney, Luzerne County, 1992-2000.
- Elected Judge, Court of Common Pleas in 1999.
Since taking the bench in 2000, he has presided over five homicide trials, four of them being death-penalty cases:
- Robert Protsman, First Degree Murder - sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
- Henry Stubbs III, Death-penalty case - sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms with no parole.
- Larry Tooley, Death-penalty case - sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
- Hugo Selenski, Death-penalty case - found not guilty by a jury ( during the second trial, Olszewski was removed as presiding judge).
- William Rohland, Death-penalty case - sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
Please note that this is just the listing of homicide cases that actually went to trial, and does not include pleas/dismissals.
On a side note... one of Olszewski's latest rulings (non-homicide) certainly opened some eyes.
A special thanks goes out to jp83 for originally asking, and then providing me with some of this information.
