COAL TOWNSHIP – A former inmate from SCI Coal Township is facing new criminal charges in Columbia County after police say he threatened a judge and a police office.
State police at Bloomsburg say Shane Bankes, is currently in a state prison in Erie County, but he was at the state prison in Coal Township last year. In June and October they say he wrote the letters where he threatened Columbia/Montour County President Judge Tom James, as well as two police officers from the Scott Township police.
Bankes is now charged with felony counts of intimidation of a witness, obstructing justice and other crimes. Troopers say he’s in prison in Erie County on separate charges. Bankes was also facing aggravated assault and drug related charges in Columbia County stemming from an arrest and a fight with police in 2018.
