A convicted felon with a record spanning two states faces criminal charges for directing a child to commit an assault. His attorney field is blank. His email tells a different story.
James Allen Stalter, 40, of Texas Township, Wayne County, has been charged with corruption of minors, criminal solicitation to commit simple assault, and aiding consummation of crime. Pennsylvania State Police say he directed a child to assault someone, and the child did it.
No local outlet has reported the case. Formal arraignment is Thursday, September 10, 2026, in the Historic Courtroom of the Wayne County Courthouse.
This is not his first time in the system. It is not his second. His criminal record runs back more than a decade, across two states, three counties, and a sentence in Florida State Prison.
One month after the charges were filed, Stalter sent an unsolicited email to this outlet. He threatened to sue. He bragged about his attorney. He did not mention the criminal case.
His attorney is a full-time assistant district attorney in the office prosecuting him.
Here is what the record shows.
The record
In November 2014, Miami-Dade police arrested Stalter for domestic violence battery. The victim was Rachel Hester, the mother of his children. That charge was dropped. Sixty-four days later he was arrested again. Same charge. Same victim. This time he was convicted: twelve months of probation and a stay-away order barring all contact with Hester. He violated the probation. Miami-Dade terminated it unsuccessfully.
While the domestic violence cases were running, Broward County was building a separate case. The State Attorney’s Office charged Stalter with two counts of dealing in stolen property, both second-degree felonies, plus two counts of filing false ownership information on pawned items. In December 2014 he pleaded nolo contendere to all four counts and received three years of probation conditioned on completing residential drug and alcohol treatment.
He didn’t complete it. A violation affidavit was filed 78 days after sentencing. A warrant issued. He wasn’t picked up on it for more than a year. When he was finally brought back before the court in March 2016, probation was revoked and Stalter was sentenced to Florida State Prison for up to 13 months and 24 days, with credit for 400 days served.
Broward County released him from custody in April 2021.
In Pike County, Pennsylvania, under a separate docket, Stalter had already pleaded guilty in March 2020 to resisting arrest. Judge Gregory H. Chelak sentenced him to two years of probation. That probation expired before the 2026 charges were filed.
Sometime after his release from Florida, Stalter arrived in Texas Township, Wayne County.
249 Terrace Street
In 2018, David Hester of Miami signed a rent-to-own contract on a house in Honesdale. Hester is the father of Rachel Hester. He never lived there. Stalter and Rachel moved in.
What happened next at that property is the subject of a separate, ongoing investigation by this outlet. What is relevant here is the violence accusations.
The threats
Phil Lather owned 249 Terrace Street. On October 11, 2019, he filed a formal property maintenance complaint with the Borough of Honesdale. In the space asking what happened when he tried to speak with the tenants, he wrote:
“They laugh at me and said they would beat me up so I called the cops.”
According to Lather, one of the occupants pulled a handgun on him. His attorney documented it in a formal letter to opposing counsel:
“Mr. Stalter menaced my client with a firearm.”
A security camera photograph shows a man standing at the front door, appearing to hold a firearm at his side.
Lather and his attorney went to the Wayne County courthouse to swear out a private criminal complaint against Stalter. Magisterial Judge Linus H. Myers refused to process it without the District Attorney’s direct approval. That approval never came. No charges were filed.
In Stalter’s own telling, sent to this outlet by email, police conducted a two-hour room-by-room search and found nothing.
No criminal charges resulted from any incident at 249 Terrace Street.
Corruption of minors
On March 13, 2026, PSP responded to an incident in Texas Township. On May 4, Trooper Jonathan Chipego filed charges at Magisterial District Court 22-3-02: corruption of minors under 18 Pa.C.S. § 6301(a)(1)(i), criminal solicitation under § 902(a), and aiding consummation of crime under § 5107. A fourth charge, simple assault, was on the original complaint. District Attorney A.G. Howell dropped it when he filed the Criminal Information on July 29 and added solicitation in its place. The DA looked at the evidence and concluded Stalter didn’t throw the punch. He sent someone else to throw it.
Read together: an adult told a child to hit someone, and the child did it.
Stalter was never arrested. PSP mailed a summons. He accepted service on May 22, eighteen days after the complaint was filed. The arrest-date field on his Common Pleas court summary is blank.
On June 17, MDJ Jonathan Dunsinger set bail at $2,500 unsecured. No conditions. No stay-away order. No restriction on contact with the alleged victim, who is a child. A man with two domestic violence arrests, four felony convictions, and a prison term behind him signed his own bail and went home.
The MDJ docket has three separate fields recording whether the defendant was advised of his right to apply for court-appointed counsel. All three say “No.”
A fingerprint order was issued May 18. Stalter accepted it May 22. Fingerprinting a defendant charged with a misdemeanor is required under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9112. As of this publication, nearly four months later, the docket reflects that it never happened.
The attorney field on both the MDJ docket and the Common Pleas docket is blank. Not the Public Defender’s Office. Not pro se. Not a private attorney. James Allen Stalter has no attorney of record at any stage of this case.
The traffic stop
On July 7, 2026, while out on unsecured bail on the corruption of minors charges, Stalter was stopped by Honesdale Borough Police Officer Christian P. Robinson and cited for driving on an expired license under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1501(a).
Florida records tell a different story. The Miami-Dade docket on Stalter’s battery conviction shows multiple notices sent to the Florida DHSMV under § 322.245(5)(a) — the statute that suspends a driver’s license for failure to pay court financial obligations. Those notices run from 2016 through April 2023. His balance due on the case remains $336. Driving on a suspended license under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1543 is a more serious charge than driving without one.
Stalter was charged with the lesser offense.
The citation was assigned to MDJ Jessica M. Ellis. Stalter pleaded not guilty on August 13. His summary trial was scheduled for September 8 at 3:30 p.m.
The summary trial was cancelled. Stalter entered a guilty plea. Jessica Ellis imposed sentence: $178.25 in fines and costs, payable at $60 a month.
The email
On June 3, 2026 — exactly one month after the criminal charges were filed — James Allen Stalter sent an unsolicited email to the Pocono Review. He was angry about unrelated reporting. He threatened legal action. He did not mention that he was facing criminal charges.
He did mention his lawyer. Unprompted. Not in response to a question. Not under pressure. He volunteered the name and offered a phone number.
“I just spoke to my lawyer, Brandon Ellis, and I want to advise you that if you publish any false information about my family, that we will take immediate civil action against your publication.”
The Pocono Review replied with two questions: when did you retain Ellis, and does he also represent your father-in-law?
Within hours, the tone reversed completely.
“No thank you I have no interest in engaging with you guys. Please discard what I wrote. Please do not contact me my family or my attorney.”
Something, or someone, told him it might not be a good idea to brag about the sitting assistant district attorney on payroll.
Who Brendan Ellis is
Brendan R. Ellis is a full-time assistant district attorney in the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office. Full-time since December 2024, according to the county’s own payroll minutes. He is also a private attorney at Ellis Law Group, 1018 Church Street, Honesdale.
The Wayne County District Attorney’s Office is the office prosecuting James Allen Stalter.
Ellis has never entered an appearance on Stalter’s docket.
His wife is Magisterial District Judge Jessica M. Ellis. She approved the criminal complaint against Stalter. She is listed as both Initial Issuing Authority and Final Issuing Authority. On July 29, Stalter stood in front of her and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. She was assigned his traffic case. She accepted his guilty plea on Monday.
No disclosure appears on any docket. No recusal was filed. No visiting judge was assigned.
There is a third connection. In Wayne County Case No. 471-CIVIL-2023, David Hester v. Philip Lather, Ellis Law Group represented the plaintiff — David Hester, Stalter’s father-in-law. Brendan Ellis filed the Praecipe for Writ of Execution on November 14, 2024, listing $5,500 in attorney fees. Jessica Ellis signed the Writ directing the Wayne County Sheriff to levy on and sell the defendant’s property to satisfy a $28,433.54 judgment. When Lather filed bankruptcy, Brendan Ellis filed a proof of claim itemizing another $2,500.
Brendan Ellis has a documented, on-the-record attorney relationship with James Allen Stalter’s father-in-law. Stalter says Brendan Ellis is his lawyer. Brendan Ellis’s office is prosecuting Stalter.
Jessica Ellis represented the grandfather of Stalter’s children. Then she approved a criminal complaint against Stalter. Then she took his traffic case. Then she accepted his guilty plea and sentenced him to $178.25 in fines and costs.
Brendan Ellis appears nowhere on the docket.
Thursday
Stalter’s formal arraignment is September 10 in the Historic Courtroom of the Wayne County Courthouse. The Common Pleas docket, as of this publication, lists no presiding judge. The field is blank. The prosecuting authority is listed as “Office of the District Attorney” — not which assistant district attorney.
The defendant says his lawyer works there.
Will this case be sent to another county? Will a visiting judge be brought in? Has Brendan Ellis been walled off from the prosecution, or is the office prosecuting his own client with him in the room?
Nobody has moved to reassign anything. Nobody has disclosed anything. The docket doesn’t answer any of these questions.
Arraignment is Thursday. We’ll be there.
Full Disclosure
Full Disclosure
In every prior case this outlet could locate — Miami-Dade, Broward, Pike County — James Allen Stalter was represented by a public defender. He was found indigent in Miami-Dade. He has never, in any jurisdiction, at any stage of any case in the record, had a private attorney.
The Wayne County case is the first time he has ever claimed to have one.
Is it possible Brendan Ellis is representing him? Ellis does take on private clients while working as a full-time prosecutor, so it is possible. But Stalter’s history of indigent status makes it unlikely he is paying for it himself. From what we can tell, David Hester — Rachel Hester’s father — paid the legal fees in the litigation over the house his daughter lives in. We doubt David Hester is paying James Allen Stalter’s legal fees. Stalter was twice arrested for assaulting Hester’s daughter.
Brendan Ellis may take on private clients, but he doesn’t do it for free.
Editor’s Note
Opinion & Analysis
There is a reason full-time prosecutors are expected to give up private practice. It is not a formality. It is not a suggestion. It exists because of cases exactly like this one.
A full-time assistant district attorney cannot privately represent a criminal defendant while his office prosecutes that defendant. He cannot do it while his wife sits on the bench approving the charges. He cannot do it while his name appears nowhere on the docket. The entire structure of the prohibition exists to prevent the situation James Allen Stalter described in his own email from being possible.
When a prosecutor maintains a private practice, every private client becomes a potential conflict with every case his office touches. Every relationship his firm has — past, present, or adjacent — becomes a question the public cannot answer, because the docket was never built to show it.
This is why the rule exists. This case is what happens when it is ignored.
Docket information was obtained from the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania Web Portal (ujsportal.pacourts.us) and Wayne County Magisterial District Court records. Florida case records were obtained from the Broward County and Miami-Dade County Clerks of Courts. The Writ of Execution in 471-CIVIL-2023 was reviewed from court records. Wayne County Commissioner minutes documenting employment status are public record. All named individuals were given the opportunity to comment prior to publication.
If you have had a similar experience in Wayne County’s court system, contact the Pocono Review at tips@poconoreview.com. See a reporting error? Please send Corrections to corrections@poconoreview.com