Re: Judge John Trucilla
AG's Office Clears Trucilla
Here is link to story:
http://goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...WS02/802080363
Quote:
The state Attorney General's Office has nothing more to say about Erie County Judge John J. Trucilla's encounter with a teenager on Halloween.
The teen's family has plenty to say.
The office declined to approve a private criminal complaint against Trucilla for having a confrontation with a Strong Vincent High School student near Frontier Park on Halloween.
"We have determined that the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges," Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett, said Thursday. "Subsequently, the case is closed."
Duane Hunter, stepfather of 18-year-old Andrias Horton, said Thursday night that his family is displeased with the Attorney General's Office decision not to pursue the charges they filed after the incident.
"I think it's a sham; it's ridiculous," Hunter said of the decision. "We kind of knew this was going to happen, but we had hoped justice would be served."
Horton said in the Nov. 2 private criminal complaint that Trucilla, 47, had stopped him and his friends while they walked near Frontier Park the night of Oct. 31.
Horton's mother, Jannette Hunter, said her son told her Trucilla "aggressively" questioned him for 10 minutes and, at one point, tried to drag Horton to the judge's sport utility vehicle.
Trucilla, in a previous interview, said he had stopped the teens as he was looking for the person who had assaulted his 16-year-old son earlier that night. Horton is not the person who assaulted Trucilla's son. Trucilla said he did nothing wrong during the stop and didn't assault any of the teens.
Trucilla's lawyer, David Ridge, said the Attorney General's Office decision satisfied the judge.
"Since the initiation of this
investigation, we have been fully confident that the Attorney General would find absolutely no basis to approve the private criminal complaint," Ridge wrote in a news release.
"Judge Trucilla was never charged with assault, never committed any type of assault, or any other offense," Ridge wrote. "The night in question, the only reason Judge Trucilla even encountered Mr. Horton was in an effort to determine who assaulted Judge Trucilla's son."
Trucilla declined further comment.
Hunter stands by his stepson's account of the incident and said that if criminal charges are inappropriate, the family may seek satisfaction in civil court.
"I don't say the judge shouldn't defend his son. But you can't just go around stopping people. He should have called the police. He's a judge, he should know better," Hunter said.
"A lawsuit would not be about monetary damages," Hunter said. "The judge didn't even say, 'I'm sorry.'"
Harley, the spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said the office assigned a prosecutor and investigator to the case and conducted "numerous" interviews. He said the office will not make the report public.
"That's standard," Harley said. "It's an investigative report."
Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher M. Capozzi, based in Pittsburgh, handled the case. He refused to comment.
Horton could appeal the decision of the Attorney General's Office to a judge in Erie County Court. The judge would review the case and decide whether to approve or reject the private criminal complaint.
The incident that led to the complaint unfolded when a passer-by called 911 to report a disturbance at West Sixth Street and Shawnee Drive, near Frontier Park, the night of Oct. 31, Erie police said. Trucilla lives nearby and had driven his SUV to the scene.
When officers arrived, police said, they found Trucilla and a group of teens. Police filed no charges.
"I'm a judge," Trucilla said in a Nov. 15 interview with the Erie Times-News about the incident. "But in this particular matter, I was acting in the capacity of a concerned father."
The Attorney General's Office investigated the incident after Horton, with the help of his family, filed the private criminal complaint detailing the allegations at the office of Erie 4th Ward District Judge Tom Robie, whose jurisdiction includes the area where the incident occurred.
Robie, as required by law, passed the complaint on to the Erie County District Attorney's Office for review.
District Attorney Brad Foulk said he passed the complaint on to the state Attorney General's Office on Nov. 14. Foulk said his office could not handle the case because of its working relationship with Trucilla.
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Dave Martin
Pa. DOC
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Member of the "Blue Knights"
"God Bless America"
Last edited by doug; February 24th, 2008 at 04:14 AM.
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