By MARISSA DECHANT
Staff writer
A Venango County jail inmate is facing additional charges after he allegedly caused a false alarm by falling out of his chair Wednesday while awaiting his preliminary hearing in the Venango County Courthouse.
A criminal complaint filed through district judge Matthew Kirtland’s office said 52-year-old Louis Anderson, of Utica, appeared in Central Court Wednesday morning for his preliminary hearing on drug charges.
Anderson was seated in the back row of the jury box sitting in a wooden chair nailed to the floor, and he began to rock back and forth until he got the chair unfixed, the complaint said.
The incident caused a disturbance in the courtroom, and the chair broke as a result of the incident, the complaint said.
Personnel with Community Ambulance Services, the Venango County sheriff’s office and Franklin state police assisted Anderson, the complaint said.
The entire incident was captured on video surveillance footage inside the courtroom, according to the complaint.
Anderson is facing a felony count of institutional vandalism of personal property and misdemeanor counts of false alarm to agency of public safety and disorderly conduct, in addition to a summary count of criminal mischief.
Anderson’s initial charges were filed Jan. 18 after Franklin state police discovered precursors to manufacturing methamphetamine at the Swamp Road home he shared with his wife, 50-year-old Lisa Anderson, during a parole check-in.
Both are facing felony counts of deposits, stores or disposes chemical waste and manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver and a misdemeanor count of use/possession of drug paraphernalia.
Preliminary hearings in those cases for the Andersons had been scheduled Wednesday but were continued to this Wednesday in Central Court.
