Centre County man sentenced to probation, house arrest for phony armed robbery report
A man who fabricated a reported armed robbery at a bus station in State College was sentenced Friday to nearly three years of probation, including three months of house arrest.
Brooks A. Shay, 41, of Spring Township, was sentenced by Centre County Judge Katherine Oliver to 35 1/2 months of supervision. He was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay $620 in restitution to Fullington Trailways.
He declined comment before his sentence was handed down.
Shay, who is white, blamed the phony Halloween 2021 attack on a Black man. He told borough police he was working as a teller when a Black man wearing a face mask struck him with a pistol, stole teller bags from 152 N. Atherton St. and fled.
But a detective who reviewed video from adjacent buildings wrote in an affidavit of probable that nobody was seen running from the bus station from two hours before the reported robbery until police arrived.
The video instead showed a man carrying a bag to Shay’s vehicle less than 10 minutes before Shay called 911. A misdemeanor theft charge was filed against the man, but was withdrawn.
Shay pleaded guilty in December to one misdemeanor count of false alarm to an agency of public safety. One misdemeanor count of false reports to law enforcement was dropped.
Penn State police issued two emergency alerts because of the bus station’s proximity to the University Park campus, as required by the Clery Act. The federal law requires colleges and universities to maintain and disclose crime statistics and security information.
The first advised people to “Seek shelter. Secure doors. Be silent. Be still.” The second, issued about 50 minutes later, said “Armed Robbery suspect still at large, remain vigilant and avoid the area of 152 North Atherton Street.”