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District Judge Xander "Bail is Racist" Orenstein
Several local Republican politicians are demanding the removal of a controversial jurist after a criminal defendant freed last year by District Judge Xander Orenstein was arrested Monday in a fatal stabbing.
Authorities say Anthony Quesen killed Benjamin Brallier, 44, a civilian employee of the Pennsylvania State Police who was jogging on the Montour Trail in Moon.
Police arrested Quesen, a 25-year-old homeless man and charged him with homicide.
Now some are questioning whether Quesen should have been out of jail at all and pinned the blame on Orenstein for releasing him on nonmonetary bail in June 2023 in a simple assault case.
That incident did not involve a weapon, was apparently a first-time offense and led to a minor injury, according to court papers.
Allegheny County Councilman-at-large Sam DeMarco Wednesday called for Orenstein, an elected official, to step down from the bench and said he wants County Council to launch an investigation.
“People are making decisions based on their feelings and not based on the law,” DeMarco said Wednesday.
State Sen. Devlin Robinson of Bridgeville, in the meantime, called on his state House colleagues to trigger impeachment proceedings against Orenstein.
“This is dereliction of duty — either step down and let somebody else take this oath — or we’re going to take this to the next step,” said Robinson, who represents parts of Pittsburgh’s South Hills.
State House whip Tim O’Neal, a Washington County Republican, Wednesday said he plans to introduce a bill of impeachment to remove Orenstein in connection with the 2023 case.
“A judge who lets dangerous suspects on the street as a matter of routine policy poses a danger to all Pennsylvanians,” O’Neal said in a prepared statement. “In my capacity as a House member, I intend to get Xander Orenstein off the bench.”
Under the state constitution, an elected official can be removed only through impeachment, with a motion introduced in the state House and a trial in the state Senate.
During interviews with TribLive, neither DeMarco nor Robinson specified what laws or guidelines they believe Orenstein violated in giving Quesen nonmonetary bond last year, but each raised concerns with the district judge’s previous decisions about no-cash bail.
DeMarco called Orenstein a “far left activist.”
Orenstein, who uses they/them pronouns, declined comment, saying a statement might breach ethics rules by impacting future proceedings.
On Wednesday, Robinson lambasted no-cash bail systems. In April, he co-sponsored a Senate bill that sought to prohibit the use of non-monetary bail for dangerous individuals, according to state Republican leaders.
The bill was sent to a House committee and never became law.
“It’s not just Orenstein,” Robinson told TribLive. “We’re worried that people aren’t taking their jobs seriously — and they’re releasing hardened criminals.”
A sprained knee
Police first arrested Quesen in June 2023 and filed a simple assault charge, accusing Quesen of trying to snatch a man’s phone at Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Quesen struggled with the man, who was at the park with his son, and ripped the man’s FitBit watch off his wrist before fleeing from authorities and jumping into the Allegheny River, a criminal complaint said.
The incident left the victim with a sprained knee, police said.
Court documents reviewed by TribLive show that administrators who conducted a risk assessment advised Orenstein to release Quesen — then named Antonia Kaseim — on nonmonetary bond, meaning without putting up any money or collateral.
Quesen underwent a psychiatric evaluation, according to court paperwork. When Quesen was arraigned on June 13, nine days after the incident, the court’s pre-trial services division recommended releasing him without cash bail as long as he continued mental health treatment and didn’t contact the victim and his family, court records showed.
Orenstein followed the recommendation and released Quesen without cash bail.
Quesen subsequently failed to appear at three preliminary hearings, which led judges to issue three bench warrants for his arrest, starting June 23, 2023, court records show.
Authorities did not find Quesen until Monday, when he was arrested near the scene of the stabbing.
On Wednesday, Tanisha Long, a community organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center, defended Orenstein’s decision and criticized “using cash as this carrot to dangle in front of people to get them back to court.”
“Other judges would have made the same exact decision Xander did,” said Long, who is based in Pittsburgh. “It’s beyond the right call. It’s the call you see in the courts literally every day. I don’t think people are aware of the number of people who are bailed with charges that are far worse.”
Long said it doesn’t make sense to require cash bail for someone with a clean record who committed a minor assault without a weapon, where the only injury was a sprained knee.
The state constitution prohibits “excessive” bail and fines for those accused of a crime. It also calls for affordable bail, unless a suspect is charged with capital offenses such as a premeditated killing, crimes that could face a sentence of life imprisonment, or instances where anything other than imprisonment could not assure a person’s or the community’s safety.
“It’s political,” Long said. “If we look at every single judge in this county, they’ve had somebody re-offend after releasing them — on cash bail or without cash bail.”
Past controversies
The first stop for criminal defendants after arrest is typical in the courtroom of a district judge, a member of the minor judiciary. District judges typically arraign people on new criminal charges, set bail and preside over preliminary hearings. Orenstein, whose courtroom is in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, sometimes presides Downtown in the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building.
District judges receive a non-binding bail recommendation from Allegheny County’s pre-trial services division.
Orenstein has drawn criticism for opposing the use of cash bail. Orenstein has released two defendants in high-profile crimes on nonmonetary bail — one an accused drug dealer, the other, a man charged with fleeing police and assaulting a law enforcement officer. Both men went on the lam but have since been detained.
In September 2023, Orenstein released a New York man accused of bringing $1.6 million of fentanyl into Pittsburgh. Again, Orenstein went against a no-release recommendation made by pre-trial services.
Police said the suspect, Yan Carlos Pichardo Cepeda, had 450,000 doses of fentanyl and a kilogram of cocaine.
Cepeda fled the Pittsburgh region and later was apprehended.
In April, Orenstein released defendant Hermas Craddock on nonmonetary bail, again disregarding a recommendation by pre-trial services to deny bail and keep Craddock jailed.
After the Craddock incident, Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente barred Orenstein from presiding over arraignments, the stage in court proceedings when bail is first set for criminal defendants.
Despite DiLucente’s prohibition, Orenstein continues to work as a district judge in other capacities, including preliminary hearings Downtown at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.
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A stabbing on the trail
PSP LCE Officer Benjamin J. Brallier (left) and his accused killer Anthony Alexi "Antonia" Quesen (source)
Police say on Monday Quesen killed Brallier of Coraopolis, who worked as a liquor control enforcement agent with the Pennsylvania State Police.
Braillier died at Heritage Valley Sewickley hospital just before 4 p.m.
Brallier, who had stab wounds to his back, upper chest and hand, was off duty at the time of the stabbing, police said.
Investigators found Quesen about a third of a mile from the scene with cuts to his hands and blood stains on his clothes, according to a criminal complaint.
Quesen was arraigned Tuesday and remains in the Allegheny County Jail.
District Judge Xander "Bail is Racist" Orenstein
Several local Republican politicians are demanding the removal of a controversial jurist after a criminal defendant freed last year by District Judge Xander Orenstein was arrested Monday in a fatal stabbing.
Authorities say Anthony Quesen killed Benjamin Brallier, 44, a civilian employee of the Pennsylvania State Police who was jogging on the Montour Trail in Moon.
Police arrested Quesen, a 25-year-old homeless man and charged him with homicide.
Now some are questioning whether Quesen should have been out of jail at all and pinned the blame on Orenstein for releasing him on nonmonetary bail in June 2023 in a simple assault case.
That incident did not involve a weapon, was apparently a first-time offense and led to a minor injury, according to court papers.
Allegheny County Councilman-at-large Sam DeMarco Wednesday called for Orenstein, an elected official, to step down from the bench and said he wants County Council to launch an investigation.
“People are making decisions based on their feelings and not based on the law,” DeMarco said Wednesday.
State Sen. Devlin Robinson of Bridgeville, in the meantime, called on his state House colleagues to trigger impeachment proceedings against Orenstein.
“This is dereliction of duty — either step down and let somebody else take this oath — or we’re going to take this to the next step,” said Robinson, who represents parts of Pittsburgh’s South Hills.
State House whip Tim O’Neal, a Washington County Republican, Wednesday said he plans to introduce a bill of impeachment to remove Orenstein in connection with the 2023 case.
“A judge who lets dangerous suspects on the street as a matter of routine policy poses a danger to all Pennsylvanians,” O’Neal said in a prepared statement. “In my capacity as a House member, I intend to get Xander Orenstein off the bench.”
Under the state constitution, an elected official can be removed only through impeachment, with a motion introduced in the state House and a trial in the state Senate.
During interviews with TribLive, neither DeMarco nor Robinson specified what laws or guidelines they believe Orenstein violated in giving Quesen nonmonetary bond last year, but each raised concerns with the district judge’s previous decisions about no-cash bail.
DeMarco called Orenstein a “far left activist.”
Orenstein, who uses they/them pronouns, declined comment, saying a statement might breach ethics rules by impacting future proceedings.
On Wednesday, Robinson lambasted no-cash bail systems. In April, he co-sponsored a Senate bill that sought to prohibit the use of non-monetary bail for dangerous individuals, according to state Republican leaders.
The bill was sent to a House committee and never became law.
“It’s not just Orenstein,” Robinson told TribLive. “We’re worried that people aren’t taking their jobs seriously — and they’re releasing hardened criminals.”
A sprained knee
Police first arrested Quesen in June 2023 and filed a simple assault charge, accusing Quesen of trying to snatch a man’s phone at Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Quesen struggled with the man, who was at the park with his son, and ripped the man’s FitBit watch off his wrist before fleeing from authorities and jumping into the Allegheny River, a criminal complaint said.
The incident left the victim with a sprained knee, police said.
Court documents reviewed by TribLive show that administrators who conducted a risk assessment advised Orenstein to release Quesen — then named Antonia Kaseim — on nonmonetary bond, meaning without putting up any money or collateral.
Quesen underwent a psychiatric evaluation, according to court paperwork. When Quesen was arraigned on June 13, nine days after the incident, the court’s pre-trial services division recommended releasing him without cash bail as long as he continued mental health treatment and didn’t contact the victim and his family, court records showed.
Orenstein followed the recommendation and released Quesen without cash bail.
Quesen subsequently failed to appear at three preliminary hearings, which led judges to issue three bench warrants for his arrest, starting June 23, 2023, court records show.
Authorities did not find Quesen until Monday, when he was arrested near the scene of the stabbing.
On Wednesday, Tanisha Long, a community organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center, defended Orenstein’s decision and criticized “using cash as this carrot to dangle in front of people to get them back to court.”
“Other judges would have made the same exact decision Xander did,” said Long, who is based in Pittsburgh. “It’s beyond the right call. It’s the call you see in the courts literally every day. I don’t think people are aware of the number of people who are bailed with charges that are far worse.”
Long said it doesn’t make sense to require cash bail for someone with a clean record who committed a minor assault without a weapon, where the only injury was a sprained knee.
The state constitution prohibits “excessive” bail and fines for those accused of a crime. It also calls for affordable bail, unless a suspect is charged with capital offenses such as a premeditated killing, crimes that could face a sentence of life imprisonment, or instances where anything other than imprisonment could not assure a person’s or the community’s safety.
“It’s political,” Long said. “If we look at every single judge in this county, they’ve had somebody re-offend after releasing them — on cash bail or without cash bail.”
Past controversies
The first stop for criminal defendants after arrest is typical in the courtroom of a district judge, a member of the minor judiciary. District judges typically arraign people on new criminal charges, set bail and preside over preliminary hearings. Orenstein, whose courtroom is in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, sometimes presides Downtown in the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building.
District judges receive a non-binding bail recommendation from Allegheny County’s pre-trial services division.
Orenstein has drawn criticism for opposing the use of cash bail. Orenstein has released two defendants in high-profile crimes on nonmonetary bail — one an accused drug dealer, the other, a man charged with fleeing police and assaulting a law enforcement officer. Both men went on the lam but have since been detained.
In September 2023, Orenstein released a New York man accused of bringing $1.6 million of fentanyl into Pittsburgh. Again, Orenstein went against a no-release recommendation made by pre-trial services.
Police said the suspect, Yan Carlos Pichardo Cepeda, had 450,000 doses of fentanyl and a kilogram of cocaine.
Cepeda fled the Pittsburgh region and later was apprehended.
In April, Orenstein released defendant Hermas Craddock on nonmonetary bail, again disregarding a recommendation by pre-trial services to deny bail and keep Craddock jailed.
After the Craddock incident, Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente barred Orenstein from presiding over arraignments, the stage in court proceedings when bail is first set for criminal defendants.
Despite DiLucente’s prohibition, Orenstein continues to work as a district judge in other capacities, including preliminary hearings Downtown at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.
Upload of statement from Twitter
A stabbing on the trail
PSP LCE Officer Benjamin J. Brallier (left) and his accused killer Anthony Alexi "Antonia" Quesen (source)
Police say on Monday Quesen killed Brallier of Coraopolis, who worked as a liquor control enforcement agent with the Pennsylvania State Police.
Braillier died at Heritage Valley Sewickley hospital just before 4 p.m.
Brallier, who had stab wounds to his back, upper chest and hand, was off duty at the time of the stabbing, police said.
Investigators found Quesen about a third of a mile from the scene with cuts to his hands and blood stains on his clothes, according to a criminal complaint.
Quesen was arraigned Tuesday and remains in the Allegheny County Jail.
