This column originaly appeared on Oct. 28, 2007
We all have worries that keep us awake at night.
Some of us worry about events worldwide that we wish we could control, but we can’t. Some of us worry about our children or spouses or siblings or parents, and hope that we can help them through the struggles that life serves up. Some of us worry about paying the mortgage or getting the Smithson Report ready at the office or having to spend the holidays with the in-laws.
Lately, I’ve been worried about Franklin Township.
You know, Franklin Township down southern Chester County way. Stuck right there between New London to the west and London Britain to the east. Home of the historic village of Kemblesville, parted by the waters of the West Branch of the White Clay Creek, and bisected by Route 896. Sorry to say, but its shortfalls have kept me awake for several hours these past few weeks.
The folks who live there don’t worry me so much. They tend to keep mostly to themselves, and their only complaints seem to stem the fact that people steal stuff out of their cars when they are parked unlocked in the driveway. Parents there concern themselves mostly with whether to attend Toddler Tuesdays at the Avon Grove Library or Homeschoolers Happenings.
What’s got me fidgety is the lack of honor that is apparently being paid to the township’s namesake, one Benjamin Franklin.
We have had this discussion before, about the disconnection between the names given to places in Chester County and reality. As I proved conclusively some time ago, for example, there are no Elk in Elk. Lower Oxford, you may recall, is located north of Oxford, and Highland has a lower elevation than Elverson. We can’t be certain how many Vincents there are in East or West Vincent, and don’t even get me started on the role Robin Hood and His Band of Merry Men may or may not have played in East and West Nottingham.
But there is clear evidence that Benjamin Franklin did spend time in Franklin, and by clear evidence I mean my conversation with Wendy Toman, until recently the chairwoman of the township’s Historic Commission.
Toman, who now lives across the border in Delaware, said that research indicated that Franklin owned land in the area of Kemblesville, and paid taxes on it to boot. He may have also scouted around the area for cheap paper from one of the paper mills for use in printing his newspaper, and as an inventor of farm equipment he is almost certain to have provided technology to help the farmers nearby bring in the fall crops.
Most importantly, Toman told me, Ben liked to stop off at what is now the Kemblesville Inn and quaff down a tankard or two there. “He apparently liked to go to taverns,” she said, with a knowing chuckle.
What has me bothered, however, is that in the century and a half since the township broke away from new London and named itself Franklin, no one has seen fit to memorialize the connection in some physical way. No statues. No monuments. No public portraits. On the township web site, you can find out more about the Colonial Pipeline Co.’s plan to mow its right of way than you can about the ties to Founding Father Franklin.
I think it’s time to correct this deficit. If not for Ben’s sake, then just so I can get my full eight hours of shut eye in.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Kidnapping McCullough
This column appeared on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007
The law defines a criminal conspiracy as an agreement between people in which each member of the group becomes the partner of every other member of the group in deciding to carry out a criminal act.
So let’s just keep this between me and you. I think we should kidnap David McCullough.
You know, the historian-slash-Pulitizer Prize winner who authored the book “1776,” which every person in Chester County is supposed to be reading as part of the Chester County Reads program -- no matter what else they’re doing, even if they’re presently involved in open-heart surgery, on either side of the table.
If you’re not reading “1776,” then let’s just keep that between you and me, because if anyone else finds out then you are going to have to be referred to Diane Gring, public relations maven of the Chester County Library, who will personally assign someone to come to your house and read the entire book to you. And the first name on the assigned readers list is a certain Pennsylvania state senator whose last name rhymes with “dinner mint,” so I’d be extra cautious about not getting to it yourself first.
I’m in the middle of the book now and I can personally say that it among my favorite books about the year 1776. It has taught me quite a bit, including the up to now unknown fact, by me at least, that Revolutionary War soldiers were really bad dressers. It is a marvelous book, between you and me, and I highly recommend that you pick it up at your earliest convenience, and not just because of the aforementioned penalties for not doing so, either.
I think we should kidnap McCullough because I think he would fit in very well in Chester County. And between you and me, I have an inside track to get the job done.
McCullough, you see, was involved in a television documentary about the Wyeth family – you know, Andy and N.C. and the lot, and I was assigned to cover its premier in New York City. I heard him lecture briefly about the film that night, and thought he was brilliantly convincing. If he had told me that the defining moment of American history was when “Come On, Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners topped the MTV rotation in 1982, I would have repeated it as fact during my next dinner conversation.
But my “in” with McCullough comes because I spoke to him once, in 1990, on the telephone, from his home in West Tisbury, Mass., by pre-arrangement with his literary agent, about the death of Nathaniel Wyeth, the older Wyeth brother who invented the plastic soda bottle. He was kind and gracious and brilliantly convincing, and when he was done he asked me to send him a copy of his story. I did.
So I figure I’ll just saddle up to Dave when he speaks at Immaculata University on Friday and remind him that I still have some left over notes of my story if he’d like to step outside and see them. Then we’d hoodwink him and spirit him away to a quiet house along the Brandywine Creek, and he could and read and write and occasionally lecture us on the importance of classic music videos, or whatever.
Because between you and me, I think he’d do well at it.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
New Posts
Hello all from the Chester County Courthouse.
If you read further down, you will see that I have left my cubicle at the main office of the Daily Local News and returned to the bowels of the Chester County Courthouse, where I will be filing stories as the "senior staff writer" and Courthouse Bureau Chief for the Daily Local. It's sort of like sending Mary Richards out to scout down stories for Ted Baxter to read over the air, except nobody watches when I toss my cap in the air at the intersection of High and Gay in ol' WC.
I thought that in addition to the weekly ... well, semi-weekly, column posts, I'd throw up ... well, put up, some of the stories I had the most fun writing, or which I thought would be of most interest to my diverse audience.
Hope you enjoy.
Oh, and everybody say hello to the new kid on the block, Mike Sherman, the sports editor of the Daily Oklahoman. You can catch more about him on YouTube.
If you read further down, you will see that I have left my cubicle at the main office of the Daily Local News and returned to the bowels of the Chester County Courthouse, where I will be filing stories as the "senior staff writer" and Courthouse Bureau Chief for the Daily Local. It's sort of like sending Mary Richards out to scout down stories for Ted Baxter to read over the air, except nobody watches when I toss my cap in the air at the intersection of High and Gay in ol' WC.
I thought that in addition to the weekly ... well, semi-weekly, column posts, I'd throw up ... well, put up, some of the stories I had the most fun writing, or which I thought would be of most interest to my diverse audience.
Hope you enjoy.
Oh, and everybody say hello to the new kid on the block, Mike Sherman, the sports editor of the Daily Oklahoman. You can catch more about him on YouTube.
Naming Names in Chester County
This column originally appeared on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007
Brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, Democrats and Republicans, tall guys and short gals, please hear my words. We here in Chester County, most glorious county on Earth, most noble county in the Solar System, most awesomest county in the Known Universe, have a problem.
I noticed the problem on Saturday in Downingtown, on my way to the annual Downingtown Friends Fall Festival, the kind of event that is meant to provide absolute faith in the notion that all is well and good in the world, and that funnel cake with powdered sugar is just as nutritious as mother’s milk.
I noticed it not because I was stuck behind the annual Downingtown Halloween Parade, which was held on Saturday, which I personally believe is a perfect time for a Halloween parade, since it gives parents and kids the opportunity to spend even more money on their real Halloween costume, which they will wear in two weeks, on the official Halloween Day, which is actually two days before Halloween.
But who’s counting.
No, I had beat the parade traffic jam by a good 90 minutes and had quite enough time to wait a few minutes at the traffic light in Downingtown, where I am accustomed to seeing all manner of real estate signs pointing me to the latest grand opening of whatever subdivision is seeking to relieve me of a sum starting in “the high 900s,” as they say in the real estate biz.
And it hit me then. There, to my left, was a directional sign pointing me toward ... Round
Hill. And another, showing me which way to get to … Tall Trees.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have run out of names to give our developments.
Time was that it seemed obvious that the builder of any new cul-de-sac or luxury housing project with a stone gate at the entrance could just dip his hand into the name basket and come up with some variation of the county’s historic/geographic/ancestoral/natural/ cultural background to name his latest masterpiece.
You know. Like Hummingbird Farm. Or Serpentine Acres. Or Fox Knoll. Or Brandywine Estates. Or Meadows at Summerhill. Or Deer Valley. Or Deer Run. Or Deer Pointe. Or Deere Ticke. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
But like a shopper driving into downtown West Chester for the first time and condemned to circling the block for hours trying to find the perfect parking space, the ringmasters of Development Land have realized that all the good names have been taken.
After all, what self-respecting pharmaceutical marketing consultant specialist wants to spend $560,000 to buy a new McMansion in the Village of Cross Keys when the guy across the cubicle from him just spent $775,000 on a pied-a-terre at the Keys at Cross Village. Who wants to move to Beaver Creek Estate when you’re already living at Quail Hill Acres?
So we’re moving to generic place names like Round Hill and Tall Trees. It’s almost sad to know that the days of Brandywine Manor Farms and Brandywine Pointe and Brandywine Terrace are behind us.
So line up very soon, brothers and sisters, for the grand opening of Small Creek and Gentle Slope and Asphalt Driveway and Crumbling Curb Estates.
I hear the Halloween parties there start in July.
Brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, Democrats and Republicans, tall guys and short gals, please hear my words. We here in Chester County, most glorious county on Earth, most noble county in the Solar System, most awesomest county in the Known Universe, have a problem.
I noticed the problem on Saturday in Downingtown, on my way to the annual Downingtown Friends Fall Festival, the kind of event that is meant to provide absolute faith in the notion that all is well and good in the world, and that funnel cake with powdered sugar is just as nutritious as mother’s milk.
I noticed it not because I was stuck behind the annual Downingtown Halloween Parade, which was held on Saturday, which I personally believe is a perfect time for a Halloween parade, since it gives parents and kids the opportunity to spend even more money on their real Halloween costume, which they will wear in two weeks, on the official Halloween Day, which is actually two days before Halloween.
But who’s counting.
No, I had beat the parade traffic jam by a good 90 minutes and had quite enough time to wait a few minutes at the traffic light in Downingtown, where I am accustomed to seeing all manner of real estate signs pointing me to the latest grand opening of whatever subdivision is seeking to relieve me of a sum starting in “the high 900s,” as they say in the real estate biz.
And it hit me then. There, to my left, was a directional sign pointing me toward ... Round
Hill. And another, showing me which way to get to … Tall Trees.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have run out of names to give our developments.
Time was that it seemed obvious that the builder of any new cul-de-sac or luxury housing project with a stone gate at the entrance could just dip his hand into the name basket and come up with some variation of the county’s historic/geographic/ancestoral/natural/ cultural background to name his latest masterpiece.
You know. Like Hummingbird Farm. Or Serpentine Acres. Or Fox Knoll. Or Brandywine Estates. Or Meadows at Summerhill. Or Deer Valley. Or Deer Run. Or Deer Pointe. Or Deere Ticke. (Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
But like a shopper driving into downtown West Chester for the first time and condemned to circling the block for hours trying to find the perfect parking space, the ringmasters of Development Land have realized that all the good names have been taken.
After all, what self-respecting pharmaceutical marketing consultant specialist wants to spend $560,000 to buy a new McMansion in the Village of Cross Keys when the guy across the cubicle from him just spent $775,000 on a pied-a-terre at the Keys at Cross Village. Who wants to move to Beaver Creek Estate when you’re already living at Quail Hill Acres?
So we’re moving to generic place names like Round Hill and Tall Trees. It’s almost sad to know that the days of Brandywine Manor Farms and Brandywine Pointe and Brandywine Terrace are behind us.
So line up very soon, brothers and sisters, for the grand opening of Small Creek and Gentle Slope and Asphalt Driveway and Crumbling Curb Estates.
I hear the Halloween parties there start in July.
Funeral Scofflaw
This story originally appeared on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007
WEST CHESTER — Seventy five dollars.
That’s all that Douglas Daniel “Dusty” Ditmer had to pay each month to live up to his end of a bargain he made with the family of the man he killed 10 years ago in a violent crash in the center of West Chester after a night of drinking at a borough bar.
The money would have gone to reimburse the funeral costs that William Lynch Jr.’s family had paid to see him buried at the Philadelphia Memorial Gardens in Frazer. But despite repeated promises to the judges overseeing his case, Ditmer continues to fall short of that goal, causing frustration among court officials and anguish in the East Goshen home where his wife and daughter live today.
Probation officers and prosecutors are set to go to a court once again to convince Judge Phyllis Steitel that Ditmer, an itinerant worker who has a record of sporadic payments for other legal obligations, including care for his 5-year-old daughter, is once again in contempt of the court’s restitution schedule. But this time it may be harder to collect, since Ditmer’s whereabouts are unknown.
“Part of our job is to help make the victim whole, and that means getting the restitution paid,” said Christopher Murphy, Chester County’s chief probation officer, in a discussion of the generalities surrounding Ditmer’s case. “It’s offensive if defendants don’t pay it, especially if its money for a funeral. It really reopens old wounds, and the victims have to go through (the case) all over again.”
Lynch’s family agrees.
“We feel like every time we have to contact the district attorney’s office to tell them that he’s fallen behind again, that we are victimized over and over again,” said Sandra Lynch, William Lynch’s 49-year-old daughter. “It’s been a real hardship on my mom financially.”
Ditmer, now 31, owes $5,497. He has not made a payment since May, when he was threatened with six months in prison if he did not pay.
“We put him in a holding cell and he eventually came up with $200,” said Craig Geisel, the adult probation officer in charge of collections, describing the last time Ditmer was brought to court. “We haven’t seen anything from him since.”
Ditmer’s saga began the morning of March 8, 1997, when West Chester police were dispatched to an accident at the intersection of North High and West Chestnut streets about 4:40 a.m.
As was described in the arrest affidavit charging Ditmer, he was driving between 56 and 69 mph when he collided with the driver’s side of Lynch’s 1992 Honda. He knocked the car into the parking lot of a pizza parlor once located at the intersection, the impact of the crash causing severe injuries to Lynch. By the time police arrived, Lynch was dead.
In the back seat of Ditmer’s car was a bottle of Bicardi Gold rum. Under the driver’s seat was a 12 ounce bottle of Bud Light, and in the rear of the car a bottle of Milwaukee’s Best beer. Neither Ditmer nor his two passengers that night suffered more than minor injuries.
Ditmer’s blood alcohol at the time was tested as 0.17, almost twice the legal limit for driving under the influence.
Lynch, a ceramics teacher and owner of a pottery store in East Goshen, was making deliveries for the Daily Local News that morning, earning extra money to supplement his income and pension from the telephone company. March 8 was his 60th birthday, and his family, including his 92-year-old mother, was planning a large party for him.
Instead, a few days later, they watched as he was laid to rest in Frazer. His mother was beside herself, Sandra Lynch said.
“She couldn’t understand why she had to bury her son,” she said.
Six months later, Ditmer entered a guilty plea to homicide by vehicle and DUI in exchange for an agreed upon prison term of two years to 59 months in a state correctional institution.
At his sentencing hearing, Lynch’s widow, Joan Lynch, went out of her way to express forgiveness for Ditmer and to wish him good fortune after his release from prison.
“Dusty, I miss my husband very much,” Joan Lynch told her husband’s killer. “I know I will greatly miss him the rest of my life. With the Lord helping me and with all my heart, I forgive you for what you did because I know you did not do it intentionally.”
“Your future is up to you,” she continued. “I am hoping, and it is my prayer, that you will come back (from jail) a changed person, a law-abiding person, and that you can make a good contribution to your community and to society.”
Ditmer seemed to be moved by her words and apologized. “I’d like to say I’m terribly sorry to cause the pain that I did to you and your family,” he said. “I’ll do to live in God’s light and do what I can for your restitution.”
That restitution was set at $10,418.58. Upon his release from state prison, Lynch did begin paying, whittling down the amount he owed to slightly over $8,000 by early 2003. But the money was slow in coming, Sandra Lynch said. “We even had to wait one whole year for one payment,” she said.
In May 2003, at the behest of the adult probation office, now retired Judge Lawrence Wood signed an agreement with Ditmer allowing him to pay $75 per month until the balance of the restitution was paid. It was a remarkable agreement since by law Ditmer was not under the supervision of the county’s probation department. He had served state time, and was therefore responsible first to the state probation authorities.
Three years later, Ditmer was back in court on contempt proceedings, still slow in paying. He was ordered to pay $500 up front, then $100 a month for six months until he was caught up on his back payment, and then, again, at the low rate of $75 a month.
According to a petition for contempt filed last week by Assistant District Attorney Beth Bowers, after Ditmer paid $100 in July 2006 he didn’t pay anything on his account until his mother came into the probation office and paid $400 for him.
By May of this year, the arrears had stacked up again, and Ditmer was hauled before Streitel to pay $200. At the time, he signed a wage attachment for the $75 monthly payments, but shortly thereafter he was fired from his job at Target in West Whiteland and no payment was ever made on that amount.
Authorities are not hopeful of getting Ditmer in front of Streitel at a scheduled Dec. 11 hearing. According to Bowers’ contempt petition, his current whereabouts are unknown. The house listed as his last address is apparently abandoned, and his last known phone number is disconnected.
Sandra Lynch does not blame Chester County authorities for the situation with her father’s killer. She blames the system which makes the court officials intermediaries between her mother and Ditmer, and believes that the state should pay her mother’s restitution, making Ditmer liable to the court.
“He’s more likely to pay it back if he had to be responsible to the court system and not my mom,” Sandra Lynch said. “But he’s just back in court, over and over.
“My mother should not have to do this again,” she said.
WEST CHESTER — Seventy five dollars.
That’s all that Douglas Daniel “Dusty” Ditmer had to pay each month to live up to his end of a bargain he made with the family of the man he killed 10 years ago in a violent crash in the center of West Chester after a night of drinking at a borough bar.
The money would have gone to reimburse the funeral costs that William Lynch Jr.’s family had paid to see him buried at the Philadelphia Memorial Gardens in Frazer. But despite repeated promises to the judges overseeing his case, Ditmer continues to fall short of that goal, causing frustration among court officials and anguish in the East Goshen home where his wife and daughter live today.
Probation officers and prosecutors are set to go to a court once again to convince Judge Phyllis Steitel that Ditmer, an itinerant worker who has a record of sporadic payments for other legal obligations, including care for his 5-year-old daughter, is once again in contempt of the court’s restitution schedule. But this time it may be harder to collect, since Ditmer’s whereabouts are unknown.
“Part of our job is to help make the victim whole, and that means getting the restitution paid,” said Christopher Murphy, Chester County’s chief probation officer, in a discussion of the generalities surrounding Ditmer’s case. “It’s offensive if defendants don’t pay it, especially if its money for a funeral. It really reopens old wounds, and the victims have to go through (the case) all over again.”
Lynch’s family agrees.
“We feel like every time we have to contact the district attorney’s office to tell them that he’s fallen behind again, that we are victimized over and over again,” said Sandra Lynch, William Lynch’s 49-year-old daughter. “It’s been a real hardship on my mom financially.”
Ditmer, now 31, owes $5,497. He has not made a payment since May, when he was threatened with six months in prison if he did not pay.
“We put him in a holding cell and he eventually came up with $200,” said Craig Geisel, the adult probation officer in charge of collections, describing the last time Ditmer was brought to court. “We haven’t seen anything from him since.”
Ditmer’s saga began the morning of March 8, 1997, when West Chester police were dispatched to an accident at the intersection of North High and West Chestnut streets about 4:40 a.m.
As was described in the arrest affidavit charging Ditmer, he was driving between 56 and 69 mph when he collided with the driver’s side of Lynch’s 1992 Honda. He knocked the car into the parking lot of a pizza parlor once located at the intersection, the impact of the crash causing severe injuries to Lynch. By the time police arrived, Lynch was dead.
In the back seat of Ditmer’s car was a bottle of Bicardi Gold rum. Under the driver’s seat was a 12 ounce bottle of Bud Light, and in the rear of the car a bottle of Milwaukee’s Best beer. Neither Ditmer nor his two passengers that night suffered more than minor injuries.
Ditmer’s blood alcohol at the time was tested as 0.17, almost twice the legal limit for driving under the influence.
Lynch, a ceramics teacher and owner of a pottery store in East Goshen, was making deliveries for the Daily Local News that morning, earning extra money to supplement his income and pension from the telephone company. March 8 was his 60th birthday, and his family, including his 92-year-old mother, was planning a large party for him.
Instead, a few days later, they watched as he was laid to rest in Frazer. His mother was beside herself, Sandra Lynch said.
“She couldn’t understand why she had to bury her son,” she said.
Six months later, Ditmer entered a guilty plea to homicide by vehicle and DUI in exchange for an agreed upon prison term of two years to 59 months in a state correctional institution.
At his sentencing hearing, Lynch’s widow, Joan Lynch, went out of her way to express forgiveness for Ditmer and to wish him good fortune after his release from prison.
“Dusty, I miss my husband very much,” Joan Lynch told her husband’s killer. “I know I will greatly miss him the rest of my life. With the Lord helping me and with all my heart, I forgive you for what you did because I know you did not do it intentionally.”
“Your future is up to you,” she continued. “I am hoping, and it is my prayer, that you will come back (from jail) a changed person, a law-abiding person, and that you can make a good contribution to your community and to society.”
Ditmer seemed to be moved by her words and apologized. “I’d like to say I’m terribly sorry to cause the pain that I did to you and your family,” he said. “I’ll do to live in God’s light and do what I can for your restitution.”
That restitution was set at $10,418.58. Upon his release from state prison, Lynch did begin paying, whittling down the amount he owed to slightly over $8,000 by early 2003. But the money was slow in coming, Sandra Lynch said. “We even had to wait one whole year for one payment,” she said.
In May 2003, at the behest of the adult probation office, now retired Judge Lawrence Wood signed an agreement with Ditmer allowing him to pay $75 per month until the balance of the restitution was paid. It was a remarkable agreement since by law Ditmer was not under the supervision of the county’s probation department. He had served state time, and was therefore responsible first to the state probation authorities.
Three years later, Ditmer was back in court on contempt proceedings, still slow in paying. He was ordered to pay $500 up front, then $100 a month for six months until he was caught up on his back payment, and then, again, at the low rate of $75 a month.
According to a petition for contempt filed last week by Assistant District Attorney Beth Bowers, after Ditmer paid $100 in July 2006 he didn’t pay anything on his account until his mother came into the probation office and paid $400 for him.
By May of this year, the arrears had stacked up again, and Ditmer was hauled before Streitel to pay $200. At the time, he signed a wage attachment for the $75 monthly payments, but shortly thereafter he was fired from his job at Target in West Whiteland and no payment was ever made on that amount.
Authorities are not hopeful of getting Ditmer in front of Streitel at a scheduled Dec. 11 hearing. According to Bowers’ contempt petition, his current whereabouts are unknown. The house listed as his last address is apparently abandoned, and his last known phone number is disconnected.
Sandra Lynch does not blame Chester County authorities for the situation with her father’s killer. She blames the system which makes the court officials intermediaries between her mother and Ditmer, and believes that the state should pay her mother’s restitution, making Ditmer liable to the court.
“He’s more likely to pay it back if he had to be responsible to the court system and not my mom,” Sandra Lynch said. “But he’s just back in court, over and over.
“My mother should not have to do this again,” she said.
Drive Like An Egyptian
This story origoinally appeared on Friday, Oct. 12, 2007
WEST CHESTER — The Chester County Adult Probation Office supervises thousands of defendants each year, most with the relative ease that comes from an experienced staff and a well-tuned system.
But even Common Pleas Judge William Mahon acknowledged that they may have some difficulties in the case of Baha Eldin Zidan, who entered a plea this week to an assault charge stemming from a hit-and-run accident in Phoenixville in early 2006.
Zidan, you see, is Egyptian. He does not speak or write English, only Arabic.
And he is deaf.
And he is mute.
Taking all those factors into account led Mahon to offer the probation department the option of making the bulk of the time they are now responsible for supervising Zidan non-reporting probation — meaning that he will not necessarily have to come to the Chester County Courthouse to speak to — or rather meet with — a probation officer.
“I’ve been doing this for 24 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Chris Murphy, head of the county’s adult probation office.
Zidan entered an Alford plea to a single count of simple assault for the traffic accident in February 2006 that left an 83-year-old borough man in intensive care with a broken arm and multiple leg fractures. In the plea, Zidan does not acknowledge guilt, but agrees it is in his best interest to accept the sentence offered.
Zidan, 42, of West Bridge Street, Phoenixville, entered his plea Monday in front of Mahon with the aid of not one but two American Sign Language interpreters — one of whom traveled all the way from Richmond, Va., to attend the proceedings.
Multiple interpreters are necessary in cases involving hearing impaired defendants because one must translate what is said to the defendant, while the other must translate what the defendant signs to the court.
This case was unusual, those involved said, because not only does Zidan not understand English, but also does not understand American Sign Language — a form of “signing” that combines various hand signals, palm orientations, movements of the hands, arms and body, and facial expressions.
The interpreter “speaking” to Zidan, thus, was forced to use a series of simple gestures to make certain that he understood what was going on. Zidan was represented at the hearing by Phoenixvlle attorney Elliot Goldberg, who could not be reached for comment.
According to an arrest affidavit in the case, the victim, Fred Fisher, was walking east on Pothouse Road bout 6:30 a.m. Jan. 3, 2006, when he was struck by a vehicle travelling east on the road. The car, identified as a 1997 white Ford Escort, left the scene without offering assistance to Fisher or providing drivers’ information.
Police were able to track the car to the Vale Rio Diner, where Zidan works as an assistant. Damage to the car matched some debris left at the accident, and police then tried to interview Zidan.
According to the affidavit, Zidan later went to the borough police department, where he was read his Miranda rights and admitted to striking the victim and not stopping. He was charged with accidents involving death of personal injury, a felony.
But after a hearing in April of this year, Mahon threw out both a statement Zidan gave in the diner parking lot concerning the accident and the videotaped statement he gave police at headquarters. He did so after Goldberg contended that the statements were taken improperly because there was no certified Arabic-language interpreter with signing skills present to accurately translate what the officers were saying to him.
Zidan, Goldberg argued, “could not have made the statements and explanations in any event as he is unable to speak.”
In his sentence, Zidan will spend two years on probation and pay $4,730 to the victim for medical expenses.
Murphy said his department was required by law to provide an interpreter at county expense for Zidan when he reported. “Defendants have a right to that,” he said. “I can’t not do it.”
Zidan is restricted from driving during the first five months of probation so that he can travel only to work, to visit his mother in northern Virginia, and to the probation department.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Jarmon, who prosecuted the case, declined to comment on the matter, other than to say he was satisfied with its disposition and of the relief it gave Fisher’s family.
WEST CHESTER — The Chester County Adult Probation Office supervises thousands of defendants each year, most with the relative ease that comes from an experienced staff and a well-tuned system.
But even Common Pleas Judge William Mahon acknowledged that they may have some difficulties in the case of Baha Eldin Zidan, who entered a plea this week to an assault charge stemming from a hit-and-run accident in Phoenixville in early 2006.
Zidan, you see, is Egyptian. He does not speak or write English, only Arabic.
And he is deaf.
And he is mute.
Taking all those factors into account led Mahon to offer the probation department the option of making the bulk of the time they are now responsible for supervising Zidan non-reporting probation — meaning that he will not necessarily have to come to the Chester County Courthouse to speak to — or rather meet with — a probation officer.
“I’ve been doing this for 24 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Chris Murphy, head of the county’s adult probation office.
Zidan entered an Alford plea to a single count of simple assault for the traffic accident in February 2006 that left an 83-year-old borough man in intensive care with a broken arm and multiple leg fractures. In the plea, Zidan does not acknowledge guilt, but agrees it is in his best interest to accept the sentence offered.
Zidan, 42, of West Bridge Street, Phoenixville, entered his plea Monday in front of Mahon with the aid of not one but two American Sign Language interpreters — one of whom traveled all the way from Richmond, Va., to attend the proceedings.
Multiple interpreters are necessary in cases involving hearing impaired defendants because one must translate what is said to the defendant, while the other must translate what the defendant signs to the court.
This case was unusual, those involved said, because not only does Zidan not understand English, but also does not understand American Sign Language — a form of “signing” that combines various hand signals, palm orientations, movements of the hands, arms and body, and facial expressions.
The interpreter “speaking” to Zidan, thus, was forced to use a series of simple gestures to make certain that he understood what was going on. Zidan was represented at the hearing by Phoenixvlle attorney Elliot Goldberg, who could not be reached for comment.
According to an arrest affidavit in the case, the victim, Fred Fisher, was walking east on Pothouse Road bout 6:30 a.m. Jan. 3, 2006, when he was struck by a vehicle travelling east on the road. The car, identified as a 1997 white Ford Escort, left the scene without offering assistance to Fisher or providing drivers’ information.
Police were able to track the car to the Vale Rio Diner, where Zidan works as an assistant. Damage to the car matched some debris left at the accident, and police then tried to interview Zidan.
According to the affidavit, Zidan later went to the borough police department, where he was read his Miranda rights and admitted to striking the victim and not stopping. He was charged with accidents involving death of personal injury, a felony.
But after a hearing in April of this year, Mahon threw out both a statement Zidan gave in the diner parking lot concerning the accident and the videotaped statement he gave police at headquarters. He did so after Goldberg contended that the statements were taken improperly because there was no certified Arabic-language interpreter with signing skills present to accurately translate what the officers were saying to him.
Zidan, Goldberg argued, “could not have made the statements and explanations in any event as he is unable to speak.”
In his sentence, Zidan will spend two years on probation and pay $4,730 to the victim for medical expenses.
Murphy said his department was required by law to provide an interpreter at county expense for Zidan when he reported. “Defendants have a right to that,” he said. “I can’t not do it.”
Zidan is restricted from driving during the first five months of probation so that he can travel only to work, to visit his mother in northern Virginia, and to the probation department.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Jarmon, who prosecuted the case, declined to comment on the matter, other than to say he was satisfied with its disposition and of the relief it gave Fisher’s family.
Valentine's Day Assault
This story originally appeared Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007
WEST CHESTER -- Valentine’s Day is normally a time for couples to express their affection for one another with flowers, chocolate or even just an intimate, candlelight dinner.
But for Lisa Platt of Spring City, this year’s holiday turned violent and bloody.
According to statements made during a court hearing Monday, Platt spent Valentine’s Day evening in the hospital, courtesy of her then-boyfriend, William Monroe Mathues.
Mathues had struck Platt once in the head with a snow shovel the two were fighting over outside their South Main Street home the night of Feb. 14. The two had admittedly been drinking heavily that day after a snow storm struck the region, and began arguing around 8:30 p.m. as they tried to clear the walk in front of the house.
Borough police said they found Platt in her home, bleeding from the scalp. She was taken to the hospital, where emergency room doctors closed her wound with five surgical staples.
In a hearing at which he pleaded no contest to simple assault charges, Mathues was sentenced to 235 days to 23 months in prison for the attack. The time-served plea allowed him to be paroled Monday.
Assistant District Attorney Lorraine Finnegan told Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. that Platt and Mathues have had “a long, ongoing turbulent relationship, that is now hopefully behind them.”
She said that Platt had been granted a protection from abuse order that requires Mathues to stay away from her or face jail time.
Mathues’ attorney, Robert J. Donatoni, said after the hearing that his client would be getting treatment for his drug and alcohol issues and had agreed not to have any contact with Platt, even though Spring City, where his family lives, is a close-knit community. Mathues plans to live in Royersford with his mother when he is released.
Mathues, wearing a turtleneck, striped sweater and olive khakis, said little during the brief hearing except to acknowledge that the prosecution could have proven its case against him and sought greater prison time than the seven months he has spent in jail since the incident.
He must also make restitution of about $12,500 for Platt’s medical expenses.
WEST CHESTER -- Valentine’s Day is normally a time for couples to express their affection for one another with flowers, chocolate or even just an intimate, candlelight dinner.
But for Lisa Platt of Spring City, this year’s holiday turned violent and bloody.
According to statements made during a court hearing Monday, Platt spent Valentine’s Day evening in the hospital, courtesy of her then-boyfriend, William Monroe Mathues.
Mathues had struck Platt once in the head with a snow shovel the two were fighting over outside their South Main Street home the night of Feb. 14. The two had admittedly been drinking heavily that day after a snow storm struck the region, and began arguing around 8:30 p.m. as they tried to clear the walk in front of the house.
Borough police said they found Platt in her home, bleeding from the scalp. She was taken to the hospital, where emergency room doctors closed her wound with five surgical staples.
In a hearing at which he pleaded no contest to simple assault charges, Mathues was sentenced to 235 days to 23 months in prison for the attack. The time-served plea allowed him to be paroled Monday.
Assistant District Attorney Lorraine Finnegan told Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. that Platt and Mathues have had “a long, ongoing turbulent relationship, that is now hopefully behind them.”
She said that Platt had been granted a protection from abuse order that requires Mathues to stay away from her or face jail time.
Mathues’ attorney, Robert J. Donatoni, said after the hearing that his client would be getting treatment for his drug and alcohol issues and had agreed not to have any contact with Platt, even though Spring City, where his family lives, is a close-knit community. Mathues plans to live in Royersford with his mother when he is released.
Mathues, wearing a turtleneck, striped sweater and olive khakis, said little during the brief hearing except to acknowledge that the prosecution could have proven its case against him and sought greater prison time than the seven months he has spent in jail since the incident.
He must also make restitution of about $12,500 for Platt’s medical expenses.
Party House Wanted
This story originally appeared on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007
WEST CHESTER — The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is seeking to take control of a former mushroom company executive’s posh Kennett home, arguing that it was used as a illicit haven for drug use in violation of state law.
Richard Basciani, a member of the Basciani Foods family, growers and sellers of fresh mushrooms in southern Chester County, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to drug possession charges stemming from a raid of his home by state police earlier that year.
Police seized a numbers of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and Oxycontin, from the home. According to authorities, Basciani kept drugs, weapons and drug paraphernalia in a safe room in the Kaolin Road house where he held drug parties for local teens.
Now, almost a year from his sentencing, prosecutors have filed paperwork to seize the 113,932-square-foot home, complete with swimming pool, as well as 3.2 acres of land it sits on and $8,011 in cash police found during the raid.
In a petition filed Sept. 21, the prosecution states the property is subject to state forfeiture law because Basciani admittedly committed drug violations there.
Between Dec. 24, 2005, and Jan. 6, 2006, Basciani used, stored and delivered controlled substances to others on many occasions that were recorded on a security video system at the residence, the petition says.
Generally speaking, any property that is used in a drug transaction — such as a car or home — can be forfeited to authorities after a person’s arrest and conviction. The county can then use the proceeds from any sale or settlement on the property during further drug investigations.
But in many cases this action comes shortly after the prosecution ends. One of Basciani’s attorneys noted the length of time it took prosecutors to seize the property.
“I was surprised that this action came at this time,” said defense attorney Robert Donatoni, who represented Basciani during a plea agreement in the case. “It’s almost a year since the case was negotiated.”
No hearing has been set in the forfeiture petition. But last month the prosecution won a temporary injunction forbidding Basciani from transferring or selling the property.
Donatoni said he had just become aware of the forfeiture action and would be meeting with Basciani’s family later in the week to determine how to proceed.
Donatoni’s co-counsel, West Chester attorney Thomas Schindler, could not be reached for comment. But earlier this summer, Schindler helped negotiate the return of some guns and Basciani’s passport, which were taken during the state police search of the home.
Judge Howard F. Riley signed an order Sept. 4 allowing Basciani to reclaim these items, but the judge left open the question of what would happen to the $8,011 and made no mention of the prosecution’s claim on the property.
The property itself would bring a tidy sum on the open market. One West Chester real estate broker estimated its value at $450,000 to $650,000.
Assistant District Attorney Norman Pine filed the forfeiture action but declined comment
on the matter.
Basciani is serving a five- to 10-year state prison sentence for his crimes. In addition to
pleading guilty on drug charges, he admitted to corrupting minors and possessing firearms without a license. During sentencing, Basciani, 51, said he had undergone drug treatment programs to get better.
The case against Basciani began when a housekeeper at his property told police he had supplied her with drugs, sometimes after they had sex. During their search, police found video recordings of drug parties attended by teens Basciani had invited.
Assistant District Attorney Lorraine M.B. Finnegan prosecuted the case and called Bascini’s sentencing a benefit to the community.
“I’m happy that the community feels it is better off without the parties and drugs he provided,” she said. “It was a party house, and I’m happy that this put an end to that.”
WEST CHESTER — The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is seeking to take control of a former mushroom company executive’s posh Kennett home, arguing that it was used as a illicit haven for drug use in violation of state law.
Richard Basciani, a member of the Basciani Foods family, growers and sellers of fresh mushrooms in southern Chester County, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to drug possession charges stemming from a raid of his home by state police earlier that year.
Police seized a numbers of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and Oxycontin, from the home. According to authorities, Basciani kept drugs, weapons and drug paraphernalia in a safe room in the Kaolin Road house where he held drug parties for local teens.
Now, almost a year from his sentencing, prosecutors have filed paperwork to seize the 113,932-square-foot home, complete with swimming pool, as well as 3.2 acres of land it sits on and $8,011 in cash police found during the raid.
In a petition filed Sept. 21, the prosecution states the property is subject to state forfeiture law because Basciani admittedly committed drug violations there.
Between Dec. 24, 2005, and Jan. 6, 2006, Basciani used, stored and delivered controlled substances to others on many occasions that were recorded on a security video system at the residence, the petition says.
Generally speaking, any property that is used in a drug transaction — such as a car or home — can be forfeited to authorities after a person’s arrest and conviction. The county can then use the proceeds from any sale or settlement on the property during further drug investigations.
But in many cases this action comes shortly after the prosecution ends. One of Basciani’s attorneys noted the length of time it took prosecutors to seize the property.
“I was surprised that this action came at this time,” said defense attorney Robert Donatoni, who represented Basciani during a plea agreement in the case. “It’s almost a year since the case was negotiated.”
No hearing has been set in the forfeiture petition. But last month the prosecution won a temporary injunction forbidding Basciani from transferring or selling the property.
Donatoni said he had just become aware of the forfeiture action and would be meeting with Basciani’s family later in the week to determine how to proceed.
Donatoni’s co-counsel, West Chester attorney Thomas Schindler, could not be reached for comment. But earlier this summer, Schindler helped negotiate the return of some guns and Basciani’s passport, which were taken during the state police search of the home.
Judge Howard F. Riley signed an order Sept. 4 allowing Basciani to reclaim these items, but the judge left open the question of what would happen to the $8,011 and made no mention of the prosecution’s claim on the property.
The property itself would bring a tidy sum on the open market. One West Chester real estate broker estimated its value at $450,000 to $650,000.
Assistant District Attorney Norman Pine filed the forfeiture action but declined comment
on the matter.
Basciani is serving a five- to 10-year state prison sentence for his crimes. In addition to
pleading guilty on drug charges, he admitted to corrupting minors and possessing firearms without a license. During sentencing, Basciani, 51, said he had undergone drug treatment programs to get better.
The case against Basciani began when a housekeeper at his property told police he had supplied her with drugs, sometimes after they had sex. During their search, police found video recordings of drug parties attended by teens Basciani had invited.
Assistant District Attorney Lorraine M.B. Finnegan prosecuted the case and called Bascini’s sentencing a benefit to the community.
“I’m happy that the community feels it is better off without the parties and drugs he provided,” she said. “It was a party house, and I’m happy that this put an end to that.”
Holiday Displays Controversy
This story originally appeared on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007
WEST CHESTER -- The Chester County Commissioners are set to approve conditions under which groups can get permission to erect winter holiday displays.
The new policy, scheduled for a vote Thursday at the board’s formal session, would requite that the display conform with current First Amendment law concerning religious displays such as creches or Menorahs.
The move comes in the wake of a dispute last year after a Menorah was erected on the courthouse lawn for the first time. Its presence led a former county commissioner to argue that the commissioners had opened the door to other displays, and soon the board approved the display of a nativity scene on the lawn.
At their work session Tuesday, the commissioners made it clear that they did not want the courthouse lawn to become a central point for groups to put up displays year-round. The only times that displays would be permitted under the policy are during the winter holiday season -- roughly from the end of November to mid-January. An exception is also made for the United Way of Chester County, which has historically put up a sign indicating its fund raising activities on the lawn.
“it would be our practice to not have other displays on the courthouse lawn,” said Commissioner Patrick O’Donnell. He suggested that it would be unseemly to have groups “start hanging stuff up all over the eaves” of the historic courthouse.
Commissioner Donald Mancini said he was in favor of an even more restrictive policy that would ban all displays from the courthouse front lawn. He noted that the building had just undergone a $2 million renovation and that there was some concern that displays would detract from the historic character of the building. But he said he would go along with the new policy allowing winter displays.
“I recognize that’s not going to be workable,” he said of the ban. “As long as things are workable, and so everyone knows what’s going on” he would support the policy’s adoption.
The proposed policy states that groups may erect winter holiday displays so long as the commissioners determine that the display “will not have the effect of causing a reasonable observer to believe that the count is endorsing religion” and “will not adversely affect the appearance of the courthouse”
It also requires that any group proposing a display mus provide proof of general liability insurance in the amount of $1 million.
Former Commissioner Colin Hanna, who last year led the charge for the presence of a creche on the courthouse lawn, said the policy appeared workable.
“It seems like a reasonable attempt to develop a policy that both honors our traditions and doesn’t cross the line into constitutional impermissible establishment of religion,” Hanna, now head of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, said Tuesday.
“The policy also leaves the final discretion in the hands of the commissioners, and I think that is appropriate,” Hanna said.
In late 2006, the commissioners were approached by former Commissioner Andy Dinniman, now a Pennsylvania state senator, with a request from the Chabad of Chester County, a Jewish organization, to allow a Menorah to be erected on the lawn, next to the traditional Christmas tree and snowman displays. The commissioners agreed to allow one to be placed here. Soon after, Hanna wrote the commissioners and demanded that they allow a creche -- a traditional Christian display.
The commissioners agreed, and soon an East Bradford woman, Helene Eissler, paid for a creche that stayed on the lawn during the Christmas season.
The Chester County Courthouse became part of the battleground over the debate on what religious symbols are permitted on a public building in 2001, when two residents objected to the presence of a plaque listing the 10 Commandments on the front of the courthouse. Both Dinniman and Hanna, commissioners at the time, supported the presence of the plaque, and a federal court eventually allowed it to remain.
The new holiday display policy requires groups wanting to erect displays to make application to the county by Nov. 15, and to pay all costs associated with constriction and maintenance of the displays. The commissioners suggested that if there are a large number of requests, not every organization would be granted approval. But they also said approval would not be made on a first-come, first-served basis.
If adopted, the full text of the policy would be posted on the county’s website, www.chesco.org.
WEST CHESTER -- The Chester County Commissioners are set to approve conditions under which groups can get permission to erect winter holiday displays.
The new policy, scheduled for a vote Thursday at the board’s formal session, would requite that the display conform with current First Amendment law concerning religious displays such as creches or Menorahs.
The move comes in the wake of a dispute last year after a Menorah was erected on the courthouse lawn for the first time. Its presence led a former county commissioner to argue that the commissioners had opened the door to other displays, and soon the board approved the display of a nativity scene on the lawn.
At their work session Tuesday, the commissioners made it clear that they did not want the courthouse lawn to become a central point for groups to put up displays year-round. The only times that displays would be permitted under the policy are during the winter holiday season -- roughly from the end of November to mid-January. An exception is also made for the United Way of Chester County, which has historically put up a sign indicating its fund raising activities on the lawn.
“it would be our practice to not have other displays on the courthouse lawn,” said Commissioner Patrick O’Donnell. He suggested that it would be unseemly to have groups “start hanging stuff up all over the eaves” of the historic courthouse.
Commissioner Donald Mancini said he was in favor of an even more restrictive policy that would ban all displays from the courthouse front lawn. He noted that the building had just undergone a $2 million renovation and that there was some concern that displays would detract from the historic character of the building. But he said he would go along with the new policy allowing winter displays.
“I recognize that’s not going to be workable,” he said of the ban. “As long as things are workable, and so everyone knows what’s going on” he would support the policy’s adoption.
The proposed policy states that groups may erect winter holiday displays so long as the commissioners determine that the display “will not have the effect of causing a reasonable observer to believe that the count is endorsing religion” and “will not adversely affect the appearance of the courthouse”
It also requires that any group proposing a display mus provide proof of general liability insurance in the amount of $1 million.
Former Commissioner Colin Hanna, who last year led the charge for the presence of a creche on the courthouse lawn, said the policy appeared workable.
“It seems like a reasonable attempt to develop a policy that both honors our traditions and doesn’t cross the line into constitutional impermissible establishment of religion,” Hanna, now head of the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, said Tuesday.
“The policy also leaves the final discretion in the hands of the commissioners, and I think that is appropriate,” Hanna said.
In late 2006, the commissioners were approached by former Commissioner Andy Dinniman, now a Pennsylvania state senator, with a request from the Chabad of Chester County, a Jewish organization, to allow a Menorah to be erected on the lawn, next to the traditional Christmas tree and snowman displays. The commissioners agreed to allow one to be placed here. Soon after, Hanna wrote the commissioners and demanded that they allow a creche -- a traditional Christian display.
The commissioners agreed, and soon an East Bradford woman, Helene Eissler, paid for a creche that stayed on the lawn during the Christmas season.
The Chester County Courthouse became part of the battleground over the debate on what religious symbols are permitted on a public building in 2001, when two residents objected to the presence of a plaque listing the 10 Commandments on the front of the courthouse. Both Dinniman and Hanna, commissioners at the time, supported the presence of the plaque, and a federal court eventually allowed it to remain.
The new holiday display policy requires groups wanting to erect displays to make application to the county by Nov. 15, and to pay all costs associated with constriction and maintenance of the displays. The commissioners suggested that if there are a large number of requests, not every organization would be granted approval. But they also said approval would not be made on a first-come, first-served basis.
If adopted, the full text of the policy would be posted on the county’s website, www.chesco.org.
Drop Kick Baby
This story originally appeared on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007
WEST CHESTER – A Honey Brook man has abandoned his quest to assert an insanity defense against charges he dropped his one month old son on the floor of his girlfriend’s house and then kicked the child in the head, instead entering a guilty plea.
Dwayne Allen “Chopper” Zeimer, 29, of Horseshoe Pike will ask Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Gavin to determine how much time he should spend in prison for the assault on his son. He entered an open plea of guilty on Wednesday to charges of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and terroristic threats.
The assault charge, a first-degree felony, carries with it a mandatory minimum prison term of five years because of the age of the victim. But Elizabeth Pitts, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, said Thursday she would seek a “significantly” longer prison term.
In his plea, Zeimer admitted that on Feb. 20, 2006, he intentionally injured his 30-day old son during an argument with his then-girlfriend, Heidi Allison Hatton, who had told Zeimer that she intended to end their relationship.
He was arrested by state police at Embreeville, after a high speed chase through western Chester County and eastern Lancaster County, during which troopers clocked him traveling over 100 mph in a 1992 Pontiac SUV.
A year after his arrest, Zeimer gave notice to the court through his attorney, Assistant Public Defender David B. Miller, that he intended to pursue a defense of insanity at trial. Based on an interview with psychologist Elliot L. Atkins of Marlton, N.J., Miller contended that Zeimer suffered from major depression that left him psychotic, an obsessive compulsive disorder, a dissociative disorder and a dependent personality disorder.
Those psychological disorders would have left him incapable of appreciating the nature of his actions that night, Miller said in his notice.
Although his guilty plea has left him without of the possibility of being found not guilty by reason of insanity at trial, Zeimer can still claim his mental condition as a mitigating factor at his sentencing hearing, now scheduled for Dec. 3.
According to the description of events given by Pitts during Zeimer’s plea, Zeimer and Hatton were arguing about their relationship when Zeimer went into a bedroom where his son was sleeping and brought him back out in the kitchen. He held in by the head for several minutes before he stood up, held the baby in the air and then threw him to the floor.
He then kicked the child twice in the head before Hatton was able to throw herself on top of the baby and protect him. Zeimer also threatened to kill both the baby and Hatton during the incident.
The baby was flown to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was hospitalized for 12 days, some of the time in the intensive care unit. Pitts said the baby suffered from two broken legs, a broken arm and internal bleeding. The child is still being treated for the after affects of the injuries today, she said.
WEST CHESTER – A Honey Brook man has abandoned his quest to assert an insanity defense against charges he dropped his one month old son on the floor of his girlfriend’s house and then kicked the child in the head, instead entering a guilty plea.
Dwayne Allen “Chopper” Zeimer, 29, of Horseshoe Pike will ask Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Gavin to determine how much time he should spend in prison for the assault on his son. He entered an open plea of guilty on Wednesday to charges of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and terroristic threats.
The assault charge, a first-degree felony, carries with it a mandatory minimum prison term of five years because of the age of the victim. But Elizabeth Pitts, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, said Thursday she would seek a “significantly” longer prison term.
In his plea, Zeimer admitted that on Feb. 20, 2006, he intentionally injured his 30-day old son during an argument with his then-girlfriend, Heidi Allison Hatton, who had told Zeimer that she intended to end their relationship.
He was arrested by state police at Embreeville, after a high speed chase through western Chester County and eastern Lancaster County, during which troopers clocked him traveling over 100 mph in a 1992 Pontiac SUV.
A year after his arrest, Zeimer gave notice to the court through his attorney, Assistant Public Defender David B. Miller, that he intended to pursue a defense of insanity at trial. Based on an interview with psychologist Elliot L. Atkins of Marlton, N.J., Miller contended that Zeimer suffered from major depression that left him psychotic, an obsessive compulsive disorder, a dissociative disorder and a dependent personality disorder.
Those psychological disorders would have left him incapable of appreciating the nature of his actions that night, Miller said in his notice.
Although his guilty plea has left him without of the possibility of being found not guilty by reason of insanity at trial, Zeimer can still claim his mental condition as a mitigating factor at his sentencing hearing, now scheduled for Dec. 3.
According to the description of events given by Pitts during Zeimer’s plea, Zeimer and Hatton were arguing about their relationship when Zeimer went into a bedroom where his son was sleeping and brought him back out in the kitchen. He held in by the head for several minutes before he stood up, held the baby in the air and then threw him to the floor.
He then kicked the child twice in the head before Hatton was able to throw herself on top of the baby and protect him. Zeimer also threatened to kill both the baby and Hatton during the incident.
The baby was flown to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was hospitalized for 12 days, some of the time in the intensive care unit. Pitts said the baby suffered from two broken legs, a broken arm and internal bleeding. The child is still being treated for the after affects of the injuries today, she said.
Back to the Future
This column originally appeared on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007
Chester County, one of William Penn’s original land subdivisions, turns 325 this year.
The Chester County Courthouse – that amalgam of buildings that occupies the center of downtown West Chester turns, by measure of its different annexes, new wings and awkward additions, 161, 115, 43, and 26 this year, give or take.
On May 12, I celebrated my 50th birthday. And on Thursday of this week, I will commemorate 25 years working for the Daily Local News.
They say that home is where the heart is, but they don’t really stamp with that idiom with an image of what that home should looks like. For my money, home stands about five stories tall, is made of part Indiana limestone, part brick and part Nova Scotia Pictou stone, and has a doorway that reads, “Justitia” above it. It’s got a clock tower on its top and a frieze on its side that features not only Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock but also the Marquis de Lafayette.
I started covering news as a reporter/drudge out of the courthouse in the late 1980s, and moved there on a semi-permanent basis in the 1990s.
If you want to count numbers, I composed an estimated 1,200 stories during the six years I was at the courthouse regularly, covered 15 murder trials, sat in three different press rooms, and received about 18 haircuts.
The latter may not have anything to do with the quality of the news accounts I was giving at the time in the overall scheme of things, but certainly concerned my employers at the time enough so that the publisher would make a point of coming into the newsroom expressly to comment on length of my hair when it had retreated to a space above my shirt collar.
I began falling in love with the courthouse when I began covering the courts beat – trials, pleas, filings, legal arguments, lawyerly foibles, Judge M. Joseph Melody, etc. After awhile, I learned the rabbit warren of back stairways and basement tunnels that allowed me to get places where the normal person wasn’t going, and used that knowledge to spend my time avoiding work as much as possible by gossiping with some of the most interesting people you’d ever want to meet – usually while they, too, were taking a break from their underpaid, overworked jobs.
I knew I’d found a home the first time a judge heard me yawning and said to one of the lawyers in front of him, “If you can’t keep him interested, what do you think you’re doing to me?”
I say all this because The Management at the Daily Local News has seen fit to ship me back to the courthouse, presumably to continue where I left off 11 years ago.
I know I will miss my post as news editor, as much I know as the newsroom callers who asked me to send a reporter to their daughter’s school play will miss my polite responses, but I am looking forward to the changes that I know I will find, and to seeing once again the old faces who still populate the courthouse’s hallways and courtrooms and back stairways.
I see it this way: Home may be where the heart is, but it is also where the Motion to Dismiss is filed.
Chester County, one of William Penn’s original land subdivisions, turns 325 this year.
The Chester County Courthouse – that amalgam of buildings that occupies the center of downtown West Chester turns, by measure of its different annexes, new wings and awkward additions, 161, 115, 43, and 26 this year, give or take.
On May 12, I celebrated my 50th birthday. And on Thursday of this week, I will commemorate 25 years working for the Daily Local News.
They say that home is where the heart is, but they don’t really stamp with that idiom with an image of what that home should looks like. For my money, home stands about five stories tall, is made of part Indiana limestone, part brick and part Nova Scotia Pictou stone, and has a doorway that reads, “Justitia” above it. It’s got a clock tower on its top and a frieze on its side that features not only Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock but also the Marquis de Lafayette.
I started covering news as a reporter/drudge out of the courthouse in the late 1980s, and moved there on a semi-permanent basis in the 1990s.
If you want to count numbers, I composed an estimated 1,200 stories during the six years I was at the courthouse regularly, covered 15 murder trials, sat in three different press rooms, and received about 18 haircuts.
The latter may not have anything to do with the quality of the news accounts I was giving at the time in the overall scheme of things, but certainly concerned my employers at the time enough so that the publisher would make a point of coming into the newsroom expressly to comment on length of my hair when it had retreated to a space above my shirt collar.
I began falling in love with the courthouse when I began covering the courts beat – trials, pleas, filings, legal arguments, lawyerly foibles, Judge M. Joseph Melody, etc. After awhile, I learned the rabbit warren of back stairways and basement tunnels that allowed me to get places where the normal person wasn’t going, and used that knowledge to spend my time avoiding work as much as possible by gossiping with some of the most interesting people you’d ever want to meet – usually while they, too, were taking a break from their underpaid, overworked jobs.
I knew I’d found a home the first time a judge heard me yawning and said to one of the lawyers in front of him, “If you can’t keep him interested, what do you think you’re doing to me?”
I say all this because The Management at the Daily Local News has seen fit to ship me back to the courthouse, presumably to continue where I left off 11 years ago.
I know I will miss my post as news editor, as much I know as the newsroom callers who asked me to send a reporter to their daughter’s school play will miss my polite responses, but I am looking forward to the changes that I know I will find, and to seeing once again the old faces who still populate the courthouse’s hallways and courtrooms and back stairways.
I see it this way: Home may be where the heart is, but it is also where the Motion to Dismiss is filed.
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