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Bucks County Courier Times
More details emerge in fatal DUI crash
By: MATT COUGHLIN
A Falls man was driving more than 89 mph in a 25 mph zone and had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system when his car smashed into a tree in Falls, killing his best friend.
Sean Cowley, 24, of Andover Road in Fairless Hills, was charged with homicide by vehicle, homicide by vehicle while DUI, manslaughter, DUI and several other offenses. He was released on his own recognizance after surrendering to police and being arraigned before District Judge Jan Vislosky Wednesday. Cowley's Pontiac Grand Prix slammed into a tree at the corner of Elmwood Road and Austin Drive shortly after midnight on Feb. 22 with Cowley and his friend Stephen Taylor inside. Neither man wore a seat belt, according to a police report. Taylor died of his injuries. Cowley was taken to St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police mistakenly said court records were not being released Wednesday night. Those records were released Thursday.
According to a criminal complaint filed against Cowley, police found him lying face down with his body stretched from the driver's seat to the passenger side rear seat of his Pontiac Grand Prix. Taylor, 25, of Philadelphia, was lying on top of him with his head hanging out the back window of the car, police said.
There were several full and partially full beer bottles in the car, police said. According to court records, police smelled alcohol on Cowley's breath and blood tests later showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .21 percent.
Cowley's attorney, Ellis Klein, has said Taylor's family was supporting him and hoped that would help convince the District Attorney's Office to drop a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 to 6 years if convicted of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence.
Grand jury clears man in Wawa shooting
By LAURIE MASON
BENSALEM - No charges will be filed against a Philadelphia man who killed one teen and injured another outside a Bensalem Wawa last year, an incident that has sparked heated protests from the victims' families.
Following a 14-month investigation, a Bucks County grand jury has concluded that Randy Dillon, 25, acted in self-defense when he shot and killed 19-year-old Matthew Taylor and wounded Alex Ryzinski, 18, shortly after 1:30 a.m. March 27, 2005.
The panel found that Dillon, a former Bristol Township resident who now lives in the city and works as an auto mechanic, was jumped by a group of eight teens who had gone to the Wawa after leaving an underage drinking party.
The grand jury concluded that Dillon, who has a license to carry a handgun, fired a warning shot and made several attempts to avoid a confrontation before he was attacked. District Attorney Diane Gibbons said a “pack mentality” kicked in, and the teens turned vicious following a brief exchange of words between Dillon and the group.
“The truth here is that these kids were drunk, they were raucous, they were riotous, they started a physical altercation and somebody died,” Gibbons said.
Dillon said he was relieved to have the long investigation concluded. Through a statement released by his attorney, Ellis Klein, he thanked Bensalem police and the district attorney for conducting a thorough investigation.
“That night, everyone involved made choices. Their choice was to jump me and assault me. My choice was to defend my life. I am sorry for everything that occurred that night. If I could turn back time I would,” Dillon said.
In its 108-page report, the grand jury found that the fight started soon after the teens — six males and two females — arrived at the Wawa on Route 1 in three separate cars. One of the cars was weaving erratically, and comments might have been made about one of the girls being too drunk to drive, witnesses told investigators.
The teens had come from a drinking party at the Neshaminy Motor Inn across Route 1 from the Wawa, Gibbons said. As the argument escalated, Dillon backed away, pulled out his gun and held it at his side. When the group came closer, he fired a warning shot into the air.
The pack still advanced, Gibbons said, and Dillon was tripped from behind and knocked to the ground.
“Dillon was tackled, punched and kicked by an unknown number of individuals,” the report states.
He fired his gun twice without hitting any of the subjects. Still, the group continued to attack, Gibbons said.
Dillon fired two more shots, hitting Taylor and Ryzinski. Gibbons said even that did not stop the attackers, and the girls jumped into the fracas.
Police arrived soon after the shooting and interviewed Dillon, the teens and several eyewitnesses. Although there were security cameras at the store, none pointed at the spot where the fight occurred.
Gibbons said the teens gave differing versions of what happened and have all changed their story several times. Dillon's account has remained consistent, she said. Physical evidence and eyewitness accounts support his story, she said.
Gibbons said the teens' waffling had slowed down the grand jury process. The investigation was further delayed by her recent sick leave for a quadruple bypass.
Klein called the case a “classic law school textbook self-defense example,” and said he's been confident since the beginning that Dillon would not be charged.
The grand jury, in its report, said Dillon was the victim, not the perpetrator, in the fight.
“We find that Dillon, who found himself substantially outnumbered, attempted to avoid a physical confrontation by warning the actors that he was armed and by attempting to retreat. We find that Dillon did not threaten to use deadly force until his own safety was jeopardized. ... We find that Matthew Taylor was physically engaged in assaulting Randy Dillon at the time he was shot,” the report reads.
While the case was before the grand jury, families and friends of the shooting victims held rallies outside the Wawa and Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown, calling on Gibbons to prosecute Dillon. The group also protested the district attorney in the middle of her re-election campaign last year, attending a political debate that was being aired on the radio.
Though he wasn't a witness to the shooting, Taylor's father, Bob Tausendfreundt, said Friday that he has interviewed all of his son's friends and they say that Dillon was the agitator and aggressor. Tausendfreundt said his son was in his car and not in a confrontation with Dillon when the shots were fired.
“Matt was trying to get everyone to leave,” he said.
Even if the teens were lying about their involvement, Gibbons, at the least, should have prosecuted Dillon for reckless endangerment because of the “warning shot” he fired outside a convenience store, Tausendfreundt said.
“He had no alternate means to retreat? He couldn't run into the Wawa?” the father questioned.
After reading the summary of the grand jury report, Taylor's father said he's not convinced tha t Gibbons was telling the “whole story” of what happened at the Wawa.
“I just don't understand this whole thing,” he said. “They were not at the Wawa to cause trouble. They were there to get hoagies.”
Gibbons said she does not blame the victims' family and friends for wanting her to prosecute Dillon.
She said the teens lied about their actions at the Wawa not only to avoid arrest, but also to deflect “community condemnation.”
Gibbons said Taylor's parents do not know the real facts behind the shooting because they are hearing only their son's friends' accounts.
“They are being lied to,” she said.
The other teens identified in the grand jury report are Robert Kilmer, Vincent Leporace, Ryan Clement, Matthew Batemen, Kristen Simpson and Kimberly Gasparo, all of Philadelphia. All were between the ages of 17 and 19 when the incident occurred, Gibbons said.
Breath tests taken five hours after the fight showed trace amounts of alcohol in some of the teens' breath, but Gibbons said there is evidence that all were drinking.
She said that although the grand jury did not recommend assault charges — mostly because the differing stories made it impossible to determine who did what during the fight — she said she will now consider pursuing charges against the teens for underage drinking. At least one boy also had a fake ID, she said.
Fred Harran, Bensalem's director of public safety, said the case underscores the problem of teen drinking. “This all started at an underage drinking party. Mr. Dillon was just an innocent bystander who was overtaken by a group of rowdy teenagers.”
The Intelligencer
An 86-year-old Upper Bucks man is accused of running an illegal garbage dump where authorities said they found everything from asbestos, spilled waste oil and damaged lead batteries to ash heaps and trash buried 30 feet deep.
Herman J. Moyer waived a preliminary hearing on the charges in district court in Quakertown Thursday and now faces a trial in Bucks County Court.
Moyer’s attorney, Ellis B. Klein, hopes to negotiate a plea bargain that will get the elderly man probation and no jail time. A guilty plea is likely to happen in May, Klein said.
“The fact that he waived his preliminary hearing shows he’s willing to cooperate. We’ll take that into consideration,” said Brian Coffey, a prosecutor with the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Section.
Klein said Moyer, the operator of Moyer’s Salvage Yard, ran the dump for decades and could be liable for fines of up to $1,000 per day.
Since paying such a hefty expense would be impossible for Moyer, Klein aims to negotiate a reasonable financial penalty with the Attorney General’s Office.
There will also be talks to set up a cleanup schedule for Moyer’s property at 394 N. Mine Road, which sits in both Richland and Springfield townships.
Moyer began operating the dump before current environmental laws were in place requiring permits and the like, Klein claimed. He wasn’t aware he was breaking the law, the attorney said.
“He’s an old school guy,” said Klein. “He didn’t know what he was doing was wrong. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, though.”
Klein claimed Moyer had even accepted waste material from the state’s Department of Transportation. “To him that meant what he was doing was OK,” Klein said.
With his gray-haired buzz cut and seasoned workman’s appearance, Moyer looked more good-natured grandfather than criminal as he signed court papers Tuesday.
When told he needed to be fingerprinted following the hearing, he asked, “Am I that much of a criminal?”
According to the state, he is because he buried and burned solid waste for years without a permit.
During an inspection on July 13, 2005, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection found a walk-in burn barrel, old tanks, waste tires, construction-related trash and waste buried 20 to 30 feet deep, according to a court affidavit.
Waste oil had stained the ground and there were lead acid batteries, old and damaged, among other finds, records said.
A Sept. 19, 2007, inspection by officers from the Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Division revealed evidence of trash burning, ash debris and buried waste, authorities said.
“Solid waste excavated from the property included a mattress, black trash bags, tires, vehicles parts, wire fencing, plywood scraps, clothing, plumbing parts, construction debris ... and pieces of aluminum siding,” records claim.
During the search, authorities also seized partially buried pipe that contained some asbestos.
Moyer reportedly told authorities that old tires located near power lines had been on his property for 30 years because he did not have the money to get rid of them.
A neighbor claimed to have seen pickup trucks containing old gas grills, refrigerators, demolition waste, wood and trash bags entering the property in early May 2007, court papers said.
Moyer allegedly admitted that ash piles on a walkway behind his house were the result of relatives burning insulation off copper wiring, said documents.
Moyer’s grandson confessed to dumping lumber on the property in July 2007 and broken bags of grass seed, fertilizer and cement on the property about five years ago, said authorities.
Moyer also used soil to fill in a pond on his property, an offense for which he faces a charge, authorities said.
Another elderly man in neighboring Haycock pleaded guilty to operating an illegal hazardous waste site in November 2006.
Calvin Peterson incurred a $7,500 fine and was ordered to begin a cleanup of the dump on his private property on Oak Lane.
A trash fire in April 2005 that burned for two days brought environmental agents to Peterson’s home. Agents found lead-tainted oil and arrested him.
Bucks County Courier Times
Teens charged with church vandalism
By BEN FINLEY and LAURIE MASON
Four high school students from Falls —at least one of them on the honor roll — were charged Tuesday with felonies for defacing a Byzantine Catholic Church in Middletown earlier this month.
The teenagers are accused of spray painting the face of a Virgin Mary statue, breaking the cement statues of lambs and drawing a phallic symbol and phrases like “God is Dead” on the property of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on South Woodbourne Road.
Harry Stetson III and Nicholas Cesari, both 18, are charged with institutional vandalism and criminal conspiracy, third-degree felonies that carry a maximum jail sentence of seven years in prison.
Stetson is a senior at Bucks County Technical High School in Bristol Township and was recently listed on the honor roll. Cesari attends Pennsbury High School.
Police aren't releasing the names of the other two teens, who are 16 and 17 years old, because of their ages. One attends Pennsbury High School and the other attends the tech school, police said.
The four are friends who live in the same Fairless Hills neighborhood, not far from the church. Stetson lives on Wyandotte Road and Cesari lives on Yorkshire Road.
At their arraignment Tuesday afternoon, Stetson was accompanied by an attorney. Cesari had no legal representation. Both teens said “Yes, sir” to the judge's questions.
The two were allowed to go home Tuesday after their arraignment. District Judge John J. Kelly Jr. released them on $50,000 unsecured bail, although he said doing so was probably against his better judgment.
“Stay away from spray cans, please,” he told them.
Stetson and Cesari did not comment as they left the courtroom.
The two juveniles were taken to juvenile court in Doylestown to face similar charges, police said.
No one was at Cesari's house to comment and a phone call to the home wasn't returned.
Stetson's attorney, Ellis Klein, said his client is very remorseful.
“He's not a demon. He's not a monster. This was not a hate crime,” Klein said. “He's a smart kid who made a stupid mistake.”
Klein said the vandalism had nothing to do with religion. He said Stetson's parents are “mortified” but standing behind their son.
“Harry has never even tagged [done graffiti] before,” Klein said. “He bowed to peer pressure that night. He's very sorry and willing to scrub it off if the church will let him.”
It's too late for that, said Kay McFarland, a spokeswoman for the parish.
“We took care of that already. We're not going to let that kind of hatred and dirt stay on our statues. Come on, we weren't going to leave that on our church,” she said.
McFarland added: “The damage to our church was staggering. And the spirit of the people was very downtrodden after this event. It was a catastrophic thing to most of our parishioners.”
McFarland told of how the damage was done on a Saturday night, Feb. 9, just in time for church members to see the results when they arrived for Sunday morning services.
“This is not something that was just fun on a Saturday night,” she said.
Overall, the teenagers caused about $3,000 in damage to the church, McFarland said. If there were any silver lining to the damage, she said, it would be the 50 to 60 religious organizations that expressed support and solidarity for the church.
It's unclear who wrote an obscene four-letter word about Jesus Christ on the wall of a shrine and other offensive pieces of graffiti. Stetson's lawyer said his client believes another group of kids might have been responsible for part of the defacement.
The investigation continues, with more kids being interviewed, police said.
Stetson, who lists himself as a Buddhist on his Myspace page, has a criminal record as a juvenile, according to his lawyer. He was supposed to start an after-school job Tuesday as a machinist but had to attend his arraignment instead.
Middletown police said the vandalism at Our Lady of Perpetual Help isn't legally a hate crime, despite calls to treat it as one. Besides, the institutional vandalism and conspiracy charges are harsher than a hate crime would be anyway, police said.
“They were all friends and just met up that night and happened to do the church,” said Detective Brian McDonough, the lead investigator in the case. “It wasn't specific to the church. It was just another building in their eyes.”
McDonough said community tips led to the arrests, and that each suspect has confessed.
Two of the suspects — Cesari and one of the juveniles — are also accused of leaving a large swath of graffiti on homes and businesses in Middletown.
Those places included the rear wall of the Target store on East Lincoln Highway and nearby homes, the Park Plaza Shopping Center at Woodbourne and Oxford Valley roads and the Middletown Shopping Center on Woodbourne Road.
“If you take a path to the mall from their houses you can find graffiti [the entire way],” McDonough said.
Police added seven more first-degree misdemeanor charges to Cesari's affidavit because of the additional graffiti.
Police said the four teenagers had nothing to do with the recent vandalism at Tullytown's St. Michael the Archangel Church. A Bristol Township woman was charged last week in that case.
“We're happy for the Middletown detectives' very quick work,” said McFarland of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. “We're going to let the law take its course.”
Cannabis News
A Philadelphia prison inmate admitted in Bucks County Court yesterday that he had set up cocaine sales from behind bars by using a cellular phone that had been smuggled into a city prison.
Hector Castillo, 21, an inmate at the Curran-Fromhold prison and a former resident of North Philadelphia, pleaded guilty before Judge Isaac S. Garb to charges of cocaine delivery, possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy, and related counts. An accomplice, William Pena, 31, of Northeast Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to the same charges, admitting he had delivered cocaine twice last summer at Castillo's direction after the two talked by cell phone -- once taking the drugs to a strip mall near Bustleton Avenue and Welsh Road and another time to a hotel in Bensalem.
Garb sentenced Castillo to four to eight years in state prison and fined him $40,000. He sentenced Pena to seven to 14 years in prison and fined him $80,000.
A third member of the ring, Michael Diaz-Kelsey, 37, of Northeast Philadelphia, admitted he helped sell cocaine from behind bars at Curran-Fromhold, pleaded guilty to similar charges on Feb. 3, and agreed to testify against Castillo and Pena, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Ellis B. Klein.
Diaz-Kelsey will be sentenced later to two to four years in Bucks County Prison, Klein said.
"It's the most brazen drug dealing I've ever seen," Klein said after Castillo and Pena were sentenced. "It's almost hard to believe they would be able to do that while in jail."
Klein said that Pena had six previous convictions for drug dealing, and that Castillo was awaiting trial in Philadelphia on charges stemming from three murder cases.
Maureen Brady, of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, confirmed yesterday that Castillo was being held in connection with three murders, but she said she did not have any details of the cases. A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said yesterday that computer problems prevented him from finding any information about the murder charges. In court yesterday, Klein told Garb that the case against the three men began in June, when Bensalem Township police arrested a man on drug charges and he later told them a Curran-Fromhold inmate was dealing drugs. The man then began cooperating with the Bucks County and Philadelphia District Attorney's Offices and twice ordered cocaine from Diaz-Kelsey by calling him at the prison where Diaz-Kelsey was being held on an assault charge, according to a probable-cause affidavit. The document said Diaz-Kelsey could arrange a cocaine deal outside the prison with the help of fellow inmate Castillo.
Klein said the informant called Diaz-Kelsey at the prison on Castillo's cell phone, which Diaz-Kelsey sometimes was allowed to use. Diaz-Kelsey then contacted Castillo, who called Pena by cell phone and got him to deliver the drugs and collect the money.
Although cell phones are prohibited in Philadelphia prisons, Castillo told Garb he had obtained such a phone and used it to stay in touch with his family and girlfriend, Carmen Colon, in whose name the phone was registered. Castillo's attorney, Keith Williams, said later that a family member "somehow" got the cell phone into the prison.
Klein said a $3,700 cell-phone bill that stretched over 60 pages was sent to Castillo at his Emerald Street address. He said that the bill was not paid and that Castillo could not use the phone after that, so he gave it to Diaz-Kelsey and told him to destroy it. Diaz-Kelsey broke the phone into small parts and flushed them down a toilet, Klein said.
He also said authorities, with an authorized wiretap, recorded at least 30 conversations between the three men over a month's time.
Efforts to reach officials in the office of Philadelphia Corrections Commissioner Thomas J. Costello about the smuggling of the cell phone were unsuccessful yesterday.
"Somebody wasn't minding the store. Obviously it's an item of contraband that slipped in," said Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein.
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