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Veteran
Parkside councilman resigns in wake of guilty plea to shoplifting
Had resisted calls to step down since arrest last summer
March 22, 2024
PARKSIDE — Borough Council unanimously accepted the resignation of Councilman Robert Powers during its meeting Wednesday.
Powers, 58, of the 2600 block of Crozer Street, had previously resisted calls to step down following his arrest last year on theft charges at a Brookhaven Lowe’s, but tendered the resignation letter after pleading guilty earlier this month to two counts of retail theft. He was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $147 in restitution
He was initially charged July 21, 2023. for taking a $499, 140-pound griddle grill from the store at 5005 Edgmont Ave. on July 14. Police serving a search warrant at his home July 20 recovered the grill from his residence.
Powers was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Robert M. D’Agostino and released on $10,000 unsecured bail in that case.
But police received three additional reports for theft cases at the same Lowe’s July 21, all involving Powers, and re-arrested him that night at his home.
According to an affidavit of probable cause for the second set of charges written by Brookhaven Sgt. Ryan Eastman, Powers entered the store three times in June and July, and used self-checkout scanners to purchase low-value items while failing to scan and pay for higher-priced items.
Powers posted $5,000 cash bail on the new charges and later waived preliminary hearings on both cases, reducing the charges to two misdemeanor counts of retail theft with the understanding that they would be resolved by nontrial dispositions.
Powers had applied in January for the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program typically available to first-time, nonviolent offenders, but the application was rejected.
He missed two court dates last month before Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan and was arrested by Brookhaven police on a bench warrant following a traffic stop.
