by peter e. bortner
Dustin R. Ballard, whose brother is imprisoned for allegedly killing a man in Pottsville, no longer faces robbery and related charges from a separate incident, as a judge dismissed them Friday.
"The court finds that a prima facie case does not exist," Magisterial District Judge James K. Reiley said at the end of the 45-minute hearing on charges resulting from an alleged robbery in April in Pottsville.
Several friends of Ballard cheered at Reiley's decision, although they became quiet when the judge ordered them to do so.
However, a spokesman for Schuylkill County Prison said Friday that Ballard still was there several hours after the end of the hearing due to failure to pay fines and costs from past cases.
Pottsville police had charged Ballard, 24, of Philadelphia, with two counts each of aggravated assault and simple assault and one each of robbery, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and carrying a firearm without a license.
Police alleged Ballard and his brother, Anthony M. Ballard, broke into the second-floor apartment of Nicole Porter at 309 W. Norwegian St. at 9:06 a.m. April 5. They said Dustin Ballard pointed a gun at Jonathan T. Porter, Nicole's brother, and stole his wallet, which contained more than $300 in cash, along with bank cards and identification.
"Two people came in my door. One went straight to my brother. A guy had a gun to me," a nervous Nicole Porter testified during Friday's hearing.
"Did you invite them in?" First Assistant District Attorney Thomas J. Campion Jr. asked her.
"No," she answered.
However, she testified that she could not identify Dustin Ballard as one of the men who broke into the apartment, in spite of her having picked him out of a photo lineup April 11.
"I can't," she said when cross-examined by Assistant Public Defender Andrea L. Thompson, Dustin Ballard's lawyer.
Pottsville police Cpl. Francis Lynagh, the only other witness to testify at the hearing, said Nicole Porter had shown no uncertainty at the lineup.
"She gave an immediate positive identification" of Dustin Ballard as one of the robbers, Lynagh said.
Jonathan Porter died July 18.
Campion and Thompson each declined to comment on the case after the hearing.
On May 10, Reiley dismissed charges against Anthony Ballard stemming from the incident. He had faced the same set of charges as his brother.
However, Anthony Ballard, 26, of Philadelphia, still faces charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and four counts of conspiracy resulting from the shooting death of Elijah T. Carraway.
City police allege Anthony Ballard shot and killed Carraway, 19, of Pottsville, about 8:30 p.m. June 11 near West Laurel Boulevard and Sanderson Street.
Anthony Ballard is in the county prison awaiting trial on those charges, as is his co-defendant, Jaimee J. Watson, 19, of Pottsville, who city police say drove the pair after the shooting to Philadelphia, where they were captured the next day.