Arrest warrant for Pennsylvania Rep. Kevin Boyle withdrawn
Philly DA withdraws arrest warrant for PA Rep. Kevin Boyle
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced his office has withdrew an arrest warrant that was previously issued for Pennsylvania state Representative Kevin Boyle who has served 7 terms in office and is on Tuesday's primary ballot for 172nd District in the Northeast.
PHILADELPHIA - An arrest warrant for State Representative Kevin Boyle was withdrawn nearly a week after it was issued and just hours before he appears on the Primary Election ballot.
District Attorney Larry Krasner and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel announced the update just under a week after the warrant was issued for an alleged violation of a Protection from Abuse order.
Officials cited new information received by the District Attorney’s office as the reason for the withdrawal.
Krasner says the Protection from Abuse order in question was no longer in effect during the dates in which Boyle was alleged to have violated the order.
"I will say, separate and apart from that, this does not mean – one way or another – that Mr. Boyle committed no crime. That is a matter to be determined later," Krasner said Monday. "But based on the information that we have today, which is more complete than the apparently accurate information that we had before, we do not find that there is probable cause to justify a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Boyle for violating a Protection from Abuse order on the dates in question."
The representative's lawyer, Andrew D Montroy, responded to the news that city's officials withdrew his client's arrest warrant in the following statement:
"Today, the Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney and Philadelphia Police Department confirmed that the arrest warrant for Kevin Boyle was withdrawn. Furthermore, some have irresponsibly implied or falsely stated that this was a matter involving physical abuse. To be clear, no such abuse has ever taken place or been alleged in the past or now. This entire past week and all the medi coverage around it coming in the final days before Election Day has caused tremendous professional damage to my client."
Boyle, 41, was previously arrested for the same offense back in Sept. 2021. His brother, Congressmen Brendan Boyle has said that was the same year Kevin started to exhibit signs of "very serious" mental illness.
Brendan Boyle claims his brother made a full recovery, and exhibited "no symptoms" for the next two years, but those mental health struggles have since returned.
"In recent weeks, his mental health has even further deteriorated. It’s been painful to watch an intelligent, accomplished person with a big heart decline in such a precipitous way," Congressman Boyle wrote.
Following the announcement of the arrest warrant, Pennsylvania House Democrats proposed a new expulsion rule. The resolution seeks to establish a new group that would determine if state reps are unable to perform their duties.
Boyle, a Democrat, has served in the State House since 2011 and represents part of Northeast Philadelphia. He is running for re-election and faces a primary challenge from Sean Dougherty.
The District Attorney says despite the withdraw of an arrest warrant, Boyle still remains under investigation.
Still no word Monday night on Boyle's whereabouts. The DA says they’d still like to speak with him.