Bail Set at $1 Million for Ex-GOP Chairman Accused of Rape

Written by Community Editor Nicole Foulke

Robert J. Kerns, the former Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman who was arrested and charged with the rape of an unconscious victim, sexual assault and related charges stemming from an alleged Oct. 25 incident, had his bail set at his preliminary arraignment Tuesday afternoon.

District Court judge Robert M. Sobeck set Kerns’s bail at $1 million and Kerns left in the custody of law enforcement, in a black sedan, to go to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Kerns is required to post 10 percent of the bail, or $100,000, to be released.

According to his defense attorney Brian McMonagle, Kerns was not incarcerated prior to his arraignment, but, rather, was in the company of detectives.

McMonagle spoke to reporters after the arraignment, saying: “Mr. Kerns vehemently denies the accusations.” 

“We look forward to testing this is court and defeating these accusations in court and restoring his good name,” he said. “These allegations are nothing but allegations.”   

Kerns is accused of raping a 51-year-old employee of his Upper Gwynedd law office after a work celebration in Whitpain Township. He allegedly drugged her by putting Ambien in a bottle of wine, and assaulted her in his vehicle and in her Franconia home.

Kerns’s bail conditions are that he will have no contact with the victim, that he is monitored via GPS, that he surrender his passport, that he not drink alcohol and that he does not enter establishments that serve alcohol.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 6, again in judge Robert M. Sobek’s courtroom.