5/25/17
by News Department on 05/25/17Frein costing taxpayers $$$...
Eric Frein might be sitting on death row in western Pennsylvania, but costs to Pike County for the cop killer's trial keeps going up.
It cost $11 million to hunt down Frein in the Poconos in 2014. According to court documents his court-appointed attorneys have been paid almost $250,000 in the past two years. A death penalty phase expert who didn't even testify was paid nearly six figures. A month in hotel rooms plus meals for the jury from Chester County cost roughly $70,000. That adds up to an additional grand total of nearly half a million dollars.
For his part, Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin says his office spent slightly more than $40,000 on overtime, experts, and office supplies.
Pike County leaders are still expecting to pay even more in the coming weeks and months as Frein's defense bills haven't been submitted yet for the entire months of April and May and the appeals process has yet to begin.
