A Lansdale man has pleaded guilty to a felony charge stemming from what investigators described as a PCP-fueled assault of a police officer on Thanksgiving 2020 in Lansdale Borough.
Court records show 26-year-old Elijah Derns pleaded guilty last week to aggravated assault – attempts to cause bodily injury to designated individuals, stemming from the incident. Additional charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, possessing an instrument of crime, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness were dropped in exchange for his plea.
Derns is currently being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on unrelated offenses as he awaits his sentencing hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
According to the criminal complaint, police were dispatched to the U.S. Gas Station at 291 North Broad Street at 1:26 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2020, for a report of a suspicious person. The 9-1-1 caller, identified as Derns’ mother, advised that her son was high on PCP, possibly armed with a knife and on his way to harm a male at the gas station.
Police located Derns along the 300 block of East Third Street and attempted to speak with him, but Derns ignored their efforts and exhibited signs of being under the influence of a controlled substance, police said. Police then attempted to stop Derns as he attempted to walk past their vehicles, but after advising that he was under arrest, Derns reportedly swore at the officers and began to push them, the report states.
A scuffle then ensued between Derns and two police officers, with Derns punching both officers in the face as they wrestled him to the ground in order to gain control, police said. Once on the ground, police gained control and held Derns until additional officers responded to the scene, according to the complaint.
Derns was then taken into custody, at which point a search of his person revealed a metal nail file with a sharp edge, police said. Both officers sustained minor injuries as a result of the assault, police said.
Derns was initially remanded to county jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, however bail was changed to unsecured two weeks later and he was subsequently released.
Since that time, Derns has been arrested multiple times on charges of public drunkenness, institutional vandalism, theft from a motor vehicle, and receiving stolen property.
On Aug. 17, Derns was arrested again on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment, terrorist threats, and related offenses, after he allegedly assaulted and attempted to stab his brother outside of Oakwood Garden Apartments on East Main Street. He’s currently being held on $5,000 cash bail for that incident.
(All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.)
See also:
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Towamencin Man Headed to Prison After Pleading Guilty to Pair of Bank Robberies
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Former Bucks Community College Professor Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography
Perkasie Man Who Sexually Assaulted Teen He Met on Omegle Sentenced to Prison
