Cosby ruling cited as jail guard’s sex abuse case is dropped

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

Pennsylvania state prosecutors have dropped their case against a jail guard accused of sexually abusing inmates. They say they were hamstrung by the recent state Supreme Court decision that freed Bill Cosby. The attorney general’s office had been seeking to prosecute John Shnipes on charges that he assaulted four female inmates at the Lackawanna County jail in Scranton between 1999 and 2013. A judge dismissed the case against Shnipes last year, ruling that state prosecutors were bound by a non-prosecution agreement he had with the county prosecutor’s office. The attorney general’s office was appealing that decision when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in June.