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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A former Hollidaysburg attorney accused of records and evidence tampering will contest his charges in Blair County court, his defense attorney said Friday.
Michael B. Cohen, 39, was slated Friday for a preliminary hearing on criminal charges filed in March by the district attorney's office.
He instead waived the hearing, with the right to raise habeas corpus challenges in county court, defense attorney Dan Kiss said.
The charges filed against Cohen accuse him of presenting a document for a judge's signature on March 15, then dating the document for March 14 to help a client avoid arrest for violating a protection-from-abuse order.
Kiss, who has been representing Cohen since March, previously denied that Cohen intentionally misled anyone.
His charges include a third-degree felony count of tampering with public records. A second third-degree felony of hindering prosecution, as originally charged, was regraded Friday to a second-degree misdemeanor, with consent of the district attorney's office.
Cohen also faces second-degree misdemeanor counts of tampering with or fabricating evidence and obstructing justice.
Senior Magisterial District Judge Wendy Mellott of Fulton County traveled to Hollidaysburg Friday to preside over the scheduled preliminary hearing. In April when Cohen's preliminary hearing was originally scheduled, Magisterial District Judge Paula M. Aigner said it would need to be rescheduled because she and the other county magisterial district judges recused themselves.
Subsequently, Kiss challenged the right of the district attorney's office to prosecute the case in light of their involvement in the charges.
Senior Judge Thomas S. Ling of Bedford County, who reviewed that filing, barred District Attorney Pete Weeks from prosecuting the case after Kiss identified Weeks as a potential witness.
Ling said he saw no problem with any other prosecutor from the district attorney's office being assigned to Cohen's case.
Mellott said Friday that her role in addressing Cohen's charges is complete.
While Cohen faces additional criminal charges, filed in June by the state Attorney General's Office, those charges were waived to county court in late June.
Those charges include two felony counts of forgery and single misdemeanor counts of tampering with records, obstructing justice and tampering with public records.
In that case, Cohen is accused of creating a false custody order that prompted a child's mother, in December, to assume primary custody and transport the child from Fayette County to Blair County.
Based on an existing custody order, the child's father had primary custody and the mother had limited rights for transporting the child to Blair County.
Based on court records, Cohen advised a Fayette County judge that he had self-reported his actions to the Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court. The disciplinary board announced on March 8 that Cohen was being disbarred on consent, effective
April 7.
Cohen remains free on unsecured bail in both cases.