Crime & Safety
Police: Straubs' Lawyer Didn't Ask for Video
The attorney says police refuse to hand over a video that would prove his clients' innocence. Police say he made no such request.
Lower Merion Police didn't receive, let alone reject, an attorney's request for video that police said shows Haverford realtors Jonathan and Andrea Straub vandalizing their neighbor's property superintendent Michael McGrath told the Mercury.
The Straubs' lawyer, George Bochetto, released a statement on Monday claiming police refused to provide him with evidence he says would prove his client's innocence. McGrath told The Mercury that the allegation is news to him.
“I have no record of this second attorney contacting us at all,” McGrath said to the paper on Tuesday. “I have seen nothing as of yesterday afternoon other than what he is putting in the newspaper.”
The superintendent added that hadn't heard anything about the subpoena Bochetto claims was served to several township employees.
The strange case dates back to June 20, when Lower Merion Police said they received a report that the Straubs had been vandalizing the home of their next-door-neighbor on the 100 block of Booth Lane in the Haverford section of Lower Merion. Both the Straubs and their neighbor—identified by Philly.com as Mary Martell—have their homes up for sale.
The department says that Martell's house-sitter—Martell herself was hospitalized at the time of the alleged vandalism—noticed the "for sale" sign in the front of the house was being knocked over, and so set up a surveillance camera to catch the vandal.
What he captured, police said, was video of the Straubs throwing snakes and dead mice in Martell's driveway, plus additional tape of the couple knocking over "for sale" signs and cutting branches off trees on the property.
The Straubs were cited for disorderly conduct on June 20 and, according to police, admitted to the crime. After the bizarre story was picked up by several media outlets, including Patch, Andrea Straub was fired from her job as an agent at Prudential Fox & Roach.
Bochetto is challenging this account, and said the video will prove his clients' innocence.
"There is no truth to these outrageous allegations and the Straubs have been wrongly vilified," Bochetto said in a Monday statement.
Previous Patch Coverage of the Straub Case
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