Judge Sets High Bail to Send Message to Hampden Township Man
Dennis Earl Grieff''s $50,000 bail might seem a little high for someone charged with misdemeanors and summary offenses. That's because it is high, said District Judge Thomas A. Placey when he arraigned Grieff following his Monday arrest.
Grieff has been in front of the judge twice before on similar charges and didn't get the message, Placey said. Placey said he would modify Grieff's bail when he provides the judge with results of a drug and alcohol screening that is a condition of the bail.
Grieff, 40, was also ordered to stay away from his father's home in the first block of Oak Avenue in Hampden Township, and to have no contact with his father, Roy Hake, whom the judge called a victim of Grieff's alleged offenses.
It was Hake who called police to the home around 5 p.m. Monday after Grieff allegedly threatened to "rip his head off" if Hake did not give him a ride to the liquor store to buy alcohol, court documents state.
Hake called the police to have his son removed from the home. Grieff was asleep in the basement when police arrived and told him he would have to leave the residence. A police search turned up a small amount of marijuana in the home.
Police arrested Grieff, who knocked out a window in a police car, court documents state.
Police charged him with harassment, criminal mischief, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is also being held on a detainer from the York County probation department.
His preliminary hearing is set for 2 p.m. April 15, in Placey's Hampden Township court.
