EVANS CITY — The case is moving forward against a man accused of burglary and trespass related to stolen panties.

Frederick Delmonte, 67, of Adams Township, pleaded not guilty to felony charges of burglary and trespassing Tuesday at a preliminary hearing before District Judge Wayne Seibel. Delmonte appeared in-person along with his attorney, Phillip P. Dilucente.

Following testimony by a witness and officer involved in the case, Seibel ruled to move both charges to the county Common Pleas court.

Assistant District Attorney David Beichner called on witness Christina O'Brien, who reported an alleged burglary of her home Sept. 6.

“I wasn't positive what happened, but I had a camera in my unit,” O'Brien said.

According to O'Brien, she had noticed some of her underwear was disappearing, and she bought a security camera to monitor her room. She said on Sept. 6 that camera caught footage of a man entering her home and hovering under the threshold of her bedroom door.

She said the man stopped and peaked around the corner, where she assumes he saw her son sitting on the couch before fleeing.

O'Brien said she was initially alerted to the break-in by her son, who called her to tell her a man had been in their home. She said she reported the incident to a community security guard, who recognized the man in the video as Delmonte and recommended she call police.

Adams Township Officer Christopher Thiel led the investigation. He said written statements were collected from O'Brien and the security guard, and he pulled up a photograph of Delmonte already in the state's system.

In 2008, Delmonte was convicted once in Butler County and once in Allegheny County each for one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure.

Thiel said he received a search warrant for Delmonte's home for the purpose of finding clothing that may match those seen in the video. He said on the way to execute the warrant, officers spotted Delmonte walking in the neighborhood.

“He was wearing the same shirt and shorts as are in that picture,” said Thiel, pointing to a printed out screenshot of O'Brien's surveillance video.

During much of Dilucente's cross-examination, he focused on the order of events that took place during the search of his client's home.

Thiel said while looking for the other clothing items seen in the photo — a hat, a pair of sunglasses and a pair of shoes — another officer saw a box in a closet containing bags full of women's panties.

“We stopped the search at that point to get another warrant,” he said.

Police uncovered 63 pairs of underwear within two boxes. Dilucente at one point questioned whether it was possible the underwear could even be seen in the bags, and if they had been collected as evidence before the second warrant was requested.

Thiel clarified that the panties were secured but not taken as evidence while they waited for the second warrant, and he said the bags were clear, making it easy to tell what they contained.

“They were in grocery bags,” Thiel said. “They were tightly wrapped by being twisted.”

After collecting the panties as evidence, police photographed them and showed them to O'Brien, who was again shown them during Tuesday's hearing.

O'Brien said the four pairs of underwear that were circled on the photograph were hers.

Dilucente took issue with O'Brien's identification of the panties, especially since she had only seen them through photographs and not in-person.

“Panties are rather common, just like men's underwear,” he said. “There's millions of underwear.”

O'Brien elaborated that all of the underwear were a bikini-style bought from Kohl's a few years ago. She said she was confident those circled were hers.

“I know what my underwear look like,” O'Brien said. “I know which of my underwear went missing.”

As part of his closing argument, Dilucente called the case questionable. He said the prosecution did not provide the video to the courtroom, and the only person identifying his client was a written statement from the security guard.

“Ms. O'Brien never identified my client whatsoever,” he said. “Misidentification happens all the time.”

Dilucente also questioned whether the panties pertained to either of the two charges.

“With regard to the panty issues, that's not even on the table today,” he said. “I have to tell you, there's some real problems with this case.”

Beichner said the presence of the panties align with O'Brien's testimony that some had been stolen from her in the past, and the video evidence speaks for itself.

“We've certainly established the defendant entered the house without permission based on the testimony here today,” he said.

Delmonte will appear next for a formal arraignment Dec. 21 in county court.