WILKES-BARRE — A man from Wyoming Borough was jailed on a judge’s bench warrant and pending an investigation alleging he spat on Luzerne County Sheriff Genesis C. Arias on Tuesday.
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Vough issued a bench warrant, also called a capias warrant, for Devin Verrez Thomas, 30, of Tripp Street, when he failed to appear for a probation revocation hearing at 9 a.m.
The county’s Adult Probation and Parole Department filed a violation report against Thomas, alleging he failed to pay fines and failed to attend court-ordered batterer’s intervention classes.
Thomas appeared in Vough’s courtroom five minutes after the judge had issued the bench warrant. When instructed by court staff that he needed to go to the court administration office to settle the bench warrant, Thomas uttered a sexual remark and stormed out of the courtroom.
While at the court administration office, Thomas allegedly spat on Sheriff Arias when he was taken into custody and transported to the county correctional facility.
Thomas is scheduled for a court proceeding on Vough’s bench warrant Wednesday afternoon before Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr.
In April 2024, Vough sentenced Thomas to two years’ probation on charges of criminal attempt to commit institutional vandalism, criminal mischief and harassment stemming from an incident in Nanticoke City on April 5, 2023.
Thomas was charged by Nanticoke police with damaging a woman’s cellular phone during a domestic dispute and damaging a toilet/sink inside the police department’s holding cell that was flooded, court records say.