Testimony began Monday for two criminal cases against former Delaware County Emergency Services Director Timothy Boyce.

Boyce, 63, of the 700 block of Ormond Avenue in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, is charged with indecent assault and harassment in one case, and indecent assault, simple assault and harassment in the other.

The allegations came from two females who worked with Boyce at Emergency Services in the Lima section of Middletown. Boyce was removed from his position in April 2024 and fired the following week for what was initially termed “gross misconduct.”.

Boyce’s alleged actions have spurred numerous lawsuits. While he is not a named defendant in those cases, they claim his alleged misbehavior was so pervasive that the county either knew about it or should have known about it and done something before it rose to the level of criminal conduct.

Defense counsel Andrew Edelberg referenced those suits in opening statements, claiming this case is about money and power. The alleged victims hope to cash in on the civil side, while the politicians running the county government want to discredit Boyce for his political associations, Edelberg said.

On the latter point, he painted the cases as nothing more than a political prosecution by the new Democratic regime against the last stalwart of the formerly Republican-controlled county.

He noted that Boyce is a 40-year public servant, Edelberg said, a hero firefighter who rescued three kids from a burning building while he was with the Upper Darby Fire Company, where he retired as deputy chief before rising to the top job at Emergency Services.

In her opening, Abry said the two alleged victims were the victims of crimes that were perpetrated by the very embodiment of the people you call for help in those situations.

“What do you do when the person that’s hurting you is in charge of 911?” she asked. “Who do you call? Who can you trust?”

She laid out the allegations in both cases, some of them going back to 2018, when one of the alleged victims said Boyce showed her a naked picture of himself

Boyce also allegedly pulled up the skirt of that same woman in 2023, touched her inappropriately and repeatedly engaged in sexual harassment.

Jurors heard from the other victim Monday morning, who described working as a hairstylist for two decades before losing her ex-husband’s benefits and needing to find a job with more security.

She was interviewed at Emergency Services by Boyce and began training in late 2023. By January 2024, she was Boyce’s executive assistant.

She walked out of the office on Jan. 30, 2024, and never went back. That was the day she said Boyce called her into his office and tried to kiss her and touched her inappropriately.

“I felt absolutely disgusting,” the witness said. “I wasn’t used to this environment. I worked with mostly women, I went to a high school with all women and this was very new to me. I felt completely lost and violated and disgusted.”

She called Boyce on Feb. 4 and told him she was quitting.

She said she sent Boyce a text Feb. 6 criticizing him for his “disgusting and disrespectful” actions, which she read in full in court.

“You totally took advantage of me and made me feel like a piece of meat,” the witness read. “…(Y)ou felt like you had all the ‘power’ to come into my personal space and everything would be just fine because it’s what YOU wanted. Never for once thought about if I would be OK with that or not.”

Abry read Boyce’s alleged response: “That was never my intention and I apologize. I have respect for you. Never my intention to come on to you.”

The woman said she is back to hairdressing, where she feels safe. She said she stood up and spoke out because she did not want it to happen to anyone else.

On cross examination, Abry repeatedly objected to Edelberg’s line of questioning about whom the woman had told about the alleged assault and when.

Judge Stephanie Klein admonished the defense attorney for peppering the witness with questions before she could answer.

The witness told Edelberg the assault took place inside Boyce’s office, but there was no line of sight from an outside hallway. There was a window, she said, but the blinds were down.

She estimated the entire assault took less than 30 seconds and said there were no witnesses.

The trial is expected to last at least the rest of the week.

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