This story originally appeared on Monday, Aug. 4, 2008
WEST CHESTER -- The crime is a woman’s worst nightmare: to be abducted by a stranger at night while driving home alone and then to be repeatedly sexually assaulted.
But the way police began solving the case was law enforcement’s modern dream come true: to get a “hit” on a convicted felon’s DNA sample in the state police database.
It took more than four years to the day of the crime, but in July 2007, police arrested drug dealer and part-time landscape laborer Alex Villa and charged him with rape, kidnapping and other offenses.
Villa, 26, who lived in West Chester before his conviction on drug charges and is now an inmate at the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill, had been scheduled to go on trial in front of Judge Anthony Sarcione today. His case was continued until September, when his attorney said she expects the case to come to a conclusion.
“I’m not sure how it is going to be resolved, but it is going to be resolved (next month),” said West Chester criminal defense attorney Amparito Arriaga.
Although not predicting the outcome of the case, the lead prosecutor said in comments before the case was continued (because of medical issues that the alleged victim is dealing with) that he felt confident as well that it would be resolved.
“This is the first time I’ve had a case with a DNA hit,” said Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kelly. “I was very happy to see technology work in this case.”
The sequence of events began around midnight on May 31, 2003.
According to court documents, West Chester police say the victim — a 21-year-old school teacher, who lived in West Goshen at the time — was driving home, when she stopped at a red light at High and Market streets, in front of the Chester County Courthouse.
There, a man she did not know forced his way into the car and asked her to give him a ride. She refused and tried to call 911 on her cell phone, but the man overpowered her and broke the phone, throwing it out the window.
Over the next several hours, the man forced her to drive outside West Chester, making threatening gestures that he would kill her. He repeatedly attempted to forc her to perform oral sex on him. After no success, he eventually forced her to have sexual intercourse.
The victim told police she was finally able to get away from her attacker and run from her car. Partially clothed, she flagged down a passing motorist who found her on Route 926, several miles from the site of her abduction.
The next day, police found two things — the car the victim had been driving at the time of her abduction and, inside it, a baseball cap the woman said her attacker had been carrying with him when he jumped into her car.
As part of their investigation, the investigators, led by Sgt. Louis Deshullo of the West Chester police, cut an area on the brim of the hat and sent it to the Pennsylvania State Police’s Bureau of Forensic Services DNA Laboratory in Greensburg, where it was assigned to lab number L03-02489-1.
Four years went by.
XXXXXXXXX
In January 2005, law enforcement authorities began collecting DNA samples from each person convicted of a felony in the state. Prior to that, only sex offenders were required to give up DNA samples.
According to the county’s deputy director of Adult Probation, Jody Carlini, in Chester County, DNA samples are taken either by probation officers or corrections officers at Chester County Prison or, in some cases, staff of the state Department of Corrections.
The samples used to be secured by drawing blood from the offender, but that process caused concern about blood-born diseases, and the probation department routinely called in staff from the county health department to get the samples.
State police now supply DNA sample kits that are easy to handle. The kits contain a fingerprint card, an identification form for the offender’s name, Social Security number and other personal data, as well as two sealed buccal, cheek, swabs.
The offender is directed to open the swab — which looks similar to a home pregnancy tester — and put it inside his or her mouth, next to the cheek. The offender then drags the swab against the soft inside of his or her mouth eight times on one side, then with another swab eight times on the other side.
The swabs are then sealed in a polyethylene evidence bag and sent with all accompanying information to the Greensburg DNA lab. If the felony offender refuses to do the test, those taking he sample are authorized to use force to retrieve it, Carlini said.
Don Blosser, the director of scientific services at the state police DNA lab, said last week that since police began collecting DNA samples in 1996, there have been thousands and thousands submitted for storage and recording. Every month, more come in; every month, there are more tests to see whether the samples match any DNA taken from a crime scene throughout the United States. The system by which all the samples are collected and compared is called CODIS — the Combined DNA Index System, and it is run by the FBI.
The process of ordering DNA samples has become a staple of any formal sentencing in Common Pleas Court, either in the case of someone who has pleaded guilty to a felony or who has been found guilty at trial. The DNA order is so commonplace that it sometimes is signed by a judge almost as an afterthought.
It was just such a boilerplate order that Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frei submitted to Judge Howard F. Riley Jr. on March 6, 2007, in the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Alex Villa, CR-4633-06.
Villa was pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. The case against him was remarkable if only because of its ordinariness: Villa had twice sold crack cocaine in April 2006 from his apartment in the 200 block of West Chestnut Street in West Chester to an undercover police officer working with the Chester County Municipal Drug Task Force.
Because the weight of the drugs in one of those sales exceeded a certain measure, the case against him was classified a felony — even though the crack was only worth $100. Villa, an illegal immigrant with an eighth-grade education, who could not speak or write English, was sentenced to two to four years in state prison; afterward, he would likely have been deported.
The DNA samples were taken by the staff at Chester County Prison and submitted to the state police lab.
In mid-May, 2007, the state police lab prepared lab report L03-02849-2 and forward it to Deshullo, who was still investigating the rape case from May 2003. What the state police report showed, Deshullo states in an arrest affidavit, was that the unidentified DNA profile he submitted four years earlier from the brim of the cap found in the victim’s car after the alleged rape “was found to be consistent with the DNA profile of a convicted offender from the state of Pennsylvania, to wit, Alex Villa, alias Alejandro Blaques.
Police, finally, had a suspect in the rape.
XXXXXXX
The “hit” was a major break in the case, Deshullo said, but not the only piece of evidence used to charge Villa.
“It is a start on building a case,” Deshullo said last week. “But you’ve still got to be able to show the motive and the criminal action. Just because there is DNA at a crime scene doesn’t mean you committed a crime.”
Police were able to obtain other physical evidence, including a photograph of Villa wearing the cap found in the car.
Deshullo and Detective Scott Whiteside then traveled to the prison at Camp Hill on June 22, 2007, where, using a court interpreter, they interviewed Villa.
In his arrest warrant, Deshullo said Villa acknowledged he had jumped into the woman’s car after drinking beer and wandering around West Chester.
“I asked her if she wanted to have sex,” police said Villa told them during the interview. “She said no and started hitting me.” I may have hit her as I was trying to get her to stop hitting me."
At some point when the victim tried to escape, Villa said he was able to drag her back into the car and take the wheel. “I made her give me oral sex,” Villa continued. He said the victim kept yelling and hitting him the entire time they drove around. At some point, he said, when he stopped to have sex with her, she ran from the car and flagged a motorists down, so he drove away.
On July 12, 2007, Deshullo asked for a warrant for Villa’s arrest.
“It’s a great database,” Deshullo, a veteran West Chester police officer, said of the DNA lab. “But when you get a hit that doesn’t end things. That just allows you to start.”
Showing posts with label Court stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Court stories. Show all posts
Monday, August 04, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
My Next Job
This column originally appeared on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008
The matter of my retirement occurred to me the other day when I sat looking at the line up of Chester County Common Pleas Court judges during a swearing in ceremony in stately Courtroom One at the courthouse for their newest member, David Bortner.
One of these days, I say to myself, I am going to be forced to give up this newspaper dodge I’ve been engaged in since the late days of the Carter Administration and find something useful to do. One of these days either Chelsea Clinton or Jenna Bush is going to be President of the United States, and the sublime will have sunk to the ridiculous so far so that reporting the news won’t be half as stimulating as just making it up, and I’m going to have to find another way to occupy my time and/or mental capabilities.
What better job, I thought, than Court Tipstaff.
All those folks sitting in Courtroom One wearing their black robes would be hard pressed to admit it, since they’re constantly having people stand up for them when they do nothing more than enter a room, but in general I’d say the Court Tipstaff is the central figure in any courtroom in Chester County. They may not look like it sometimes, but the power and influence they hold is incalculable.
Take a for instance.
I’m sitting in Courtroom Seven a few days ago waiting for something to happen. That’s what we do at the courthouse, mostly: wait. There’s me, a court clerk, a court stenographer, a deputy sheriff or two, and Al the Tipstaff. Otherwise, it’s an empty courtroom.
So who walks out from his chambers but Judge Anthony Sarcione, who by my estimation is the only currently sitting jurist in Chester County who has ever ridden a surfboard, unless there’s a side to Judge Robert Shenkin that I haven’t been exposed to. Anyway, Judge Sarcione walks out of his chambers, strides purposefully to his bench, and looks out on the courtroom to see…
“What? No attorneys?” he says, disappointedly, to no one in particular.
Now, a judge on a bench without any attorneys in the room is a lost cause. It’s a boat without a sail, a gun without bullets, a pitcher without a batter. There’s no one to squint at in confusion, there’s no one to argue with in derision, there’s no one to overrule, for heavens sake. So there stood Judge Sarcione, ready to hang ten on the Big Kahuna Wave of res judica, so to speak, and the only one looking back at him from the audience is me. And I’m nowhere near qualified for him to hold in contempt, at least in a legal way.
Al the Tipstaff to the rescue.
Minutes later, there are not one but two attorneys in the courtroom, just aching to tell Judge Sarcione about this or that aspect of their case, meet with him at sidebar, call him “Your Honor,” use words like “colloquy” without chuckling, and ask to be excused when they leave the courtroom. All was right, God was in his Heaven, and we owe it all to Al the Tipstaff.
That’s what I want, real power. And the chance to say, “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” in public.
The matter of my retirement occurred to me the other day when I sat looking at the line up of Chester County Common Pleas Court judges during a swearing in ceremony in stately Courtroom One at the courthouse for their newest member, David Bortner.
One of these days, I say to myself, I am going to be forced to give up this newspaper dodge I’ve been engaged in since the late days of the Carter Administration and find something useful to do. One of these days either Chelsea Clinton or Jenna Bush is going to be President of the United States, and the sublime will have sunk to the ridiculous so far so that reporting the news won’t be half as stimulating as just making it up, and I’m going to have to find another way to occupy my time and/or mental capabilities.
What better job, I thought, than Court Tipstaff.
All those folks sitting in Courtroom One wearing their black robes would be hard pressed to admit it, since they’re constantly having people stand up for them when they do nothing more than enter a room, but in general I’d say the Court Tipstaff is the central figure in any courtroom in Chester County. They may not look like it sometimes, but the power and influence they hold is incalculable.
Take a for instance.
I’m sitting in Courtroom Seven a few days ago waiting for something to happen. That’s what we do at the courthouse, mostly: wait. There’s me, a court clerk, a court stenographer, a deputy sheriff or two, and Al the Tipstaff. Otherwise, it’s an empty courtroom.
So who walks out from his chambers but Judge Anthony Sarcione, who by my estimation is the only currently sitting jurist in Chester County who has ever ridden a surfboard, unless there’s a side to Judge Robert Shenkin that I haven’t been exposed to. Anyway, Judge Sarcione walks out of his chambers, strides purposefully to his bench, and looks out on the courtroom to see…
“What? No attorneys?” he says, disappointedly, to no one in particular.
Now, a judge on a bench without any attorneys in the room is a lost cause. It’s a boat without a sail, a gun without bullets, a pitcher without a batter. There’s no one to squint at in confusion, there’s no one to argue with in derision, there’s no one to overrule, for heavens sake. So there stood Judge Sarcione, ready to hang ten on the Big Kahuna Wave of res judica, so to speak, and the only one looking back at him from the audience is me. And I’m nowhere near qualified for him to hold in contempt, at least in a legal way.
Al the Tipstaff to the rescue.
Minutes later, there are not one but two attorneys in the courtroom, just aching to tell Judge Sarcione about this or that aspect of their case, meet with him at sidebar, call him “Your Honor,” use words like “colloquy” without chuckling, and ask to be excused when they leave the courtroom. All was right, God was in his Heaven, and we owe it all to Al the Tipstaff.
That’s what I want, real power. And the chance to say, “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” in public.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
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.
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