East Huntingdon man, accused of assaulting woman, is arrested again 14 hours later

An East Huntingdon man arrested for assaulting and choking his ex-girlfriend is accused of returning to the woman’s apartment after his release from prison and threatening to kill her.

Scott A. Bergman, 56, admitted to state troopers he hitchhiked directly from the county prison to his former girlfriend’s apartment in Huntingdon Village Sunday after he was released on $25,000 unsecured bond. Bergman admitted to troopers he went there even though District Judge Tony Bompiani instructed him stay away.

Trooper Steven Papuga, who initially arrested Bergman about 10 p.m. Saturday, was also on duty Sunday at 2:15 p.m., after the woman called a second time for help.

Papuga said the woman and a friend said Bergman was initially seen standing in a hallway about 20 feet away from the woman’s apartment, but then “began beating and pounding on the door” and screaming that “I’ll kill both of you.”

According to court documents, Bergman told Papuga he went directly from jail to the woman’s apartment to retrieve his clothes and possessions.

“I asked him what the judge advised him this morning, Bergman replied, ‘I was to have no more contact with the woman’,” Papuga wrote in court papers.

Papuga said he took Bergman into custody a second time and sent him to the county prison, where he was held for violating terms of his release.

He was initially charged with criminal mischief, harassment, simple assault and strangulation. He was arraigned Monday on two new counts of terroristic threats and one count of disorderly conduct.

District Judge Charles Moore ordered him held in the county prison after Bergman failed to post $25,000 straight bond. A preliminary hearing is Nov. 25.