Hugo Selenski

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Hugo Selenski

Born	1974
Residence	Kingston Township, Pennsylvania
Known for	Bank robber Accused mass murderer World-wide publicized prison escape

Hugo Selenski is a convicted bank robber from Luzerne County, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, charged in 2003 with the murder of two of five people whose bodies were unearthed from his back yard. Officials have said there might be as many as 12 bodies buried at his home on Mount Olivet Drive in Kingston Township, Pennsylvania.

Selenski was the target of a nationwide manhunt and gained national media recognition when he escaped from the jail where he was awaiting trial the week he was charged with the murders, on Friday, October 9, 2003. He and another inmate used bedsheets to escape from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in the county seat of Wilkes-Barre. Selenski's partner in the jailbreak, Scott Bolton, was injured and hospitalized during the escape, but Selenski remained free. He turned himself in several days later. The next morning, the incident was the top story on all of the national morning news programs, including CNN's American Morning, and on the network evening news. It made the headlines of major American newspapers.

Selenski was subsequently moved to a state prison, also located in Luzerne County.

Two years later, jury selection was completed, and his trial began in March, 2006. The trial lasted two weeks, with an acquittal on the murder charges. He was, however, found guilty on two counts of abusing a corpse, though the delay in getting him to trial covered the jail time required by the sentence.

On May 1, 2006, Selenski was sentenced to two to four years for his crimes, although he will receive credit for the three years already served. This means serving at most only a single additional year for his crimes thus far.^[1]

Despite being acquitted, and technically a free man, he has been re-arrested on murder charges stemming from other corpses found on his property. The charges are to be challenged in court in mid May of 2006.

A local newspaper article revealed that while in jail, Selenski has become somewhat of an artist. He makes artwork from the most unlikely of materials-- he is forbidden to have paintbrushes. Some of this artwork has been sold.

Many news organizations and many letters to the editor in the two city dailies are reporting that some females seem drawn to the handsome alleged killer.

Selenski's second murder trial is almost overshadowed by a running feud between between Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas and County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. who presided over the first trial and is a political rival of Lupas. ^[2]

Lupas said Olszewski was biased toward Selenski in the earlier murder trial and could not be fair in the upcoming trial. In filing a motion for the judge's removal from the case, Lupas alleged that Olszewski's law clerk and former first assistant prosecutor, Daniel Pillets, had provided "strategic advice" to the defense during Selenski's first homicide trial.

Prosecutors further noted that Olszewski earlier dismissed an escape charge against Selenski. Lupas's motion also alleged that Olszewski told a radio interviewer off the air that Selenski is "extremely intelligent"; and noted that the families of the victims in the latest trial wanted Olszewski to step down.

Olszewski repeatedly denied the allegations, but on August 9, 2006, the judge stepped down from the case. In an opinion quite critical of the prosecutor's arguments, he said that although he was confident he could be unbiased in the case, the interests of public confidence in the judicial system were more important.

"I know with absolute certainty and can express with unequivocal confidence that I harbor no bias or prejudice toward the Commonwealth and could in fact preside impartially," Olszewski wrote. "Given the unique circumstances presented, this sentiment must yield to ensuring public confidence in the Courts and the administration of justice."