Convicted DelCo judge free on bail

After serving less than three weeks of his six-month sentence, a former Delaware County judge is free on $200,000 cash bail while his lawyer appeals his sentence, according to court records.

Former Haverford District Judge Gerald Liberace, who was sentenced to 6-to-12 months in prison on March 29 for inappropriately touching a 12-year-old girl in his care, posted the $200,000 cash bail yesterday, according to court records.

Philadelphia Senior Judge John L. Braxton, who presided over the case because of Liberace's Delaware County connections, set the cash bail Tuesday following a petition from Liberace's lawyer.

It was Braxton who sentenced Liberace, 69, to a prison term, despite his clean record, following his conviction by a jury in January on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of a minor. At that same trial, Liberace was found not guilty of an indecent assault charge.

A woman, now 18, claimed that while in Liberace's care six years ago, he repeatedly touched her buttocks and once rubbed her vagina.

When Liberace was sentenced, Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case, made it a point to tell me that the investigation into Liberace remains ongoing, though he was mum about why.