EAST SIDE CRIMINAL DAY - 8/17/07

NOTE: Due to issues beyond my control - namely the unavailabilty of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts web site for some sort of technical issues - this report was delayed by a day. I apologize for the delay of the Criminal Day coverage that you've come to expect from this site, but I was handcuffed by the inability of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to fix the glitches of its public access web site in a timely fashion (perhaps funding to properly maintain the site was commandeered by Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia) and Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D-Pa./Comcast) was diverted to the free SEPTA passes for School District of Philadelphia student program, or perhaps to the casinos and/or liquor stores that were considered more "essential" than state parks or PennDOT's licensing centers). In any event, here's the recap...

A total of 12 cases with a single hearing involving two co-defendants and a lot of controversy and allegations surrounding a witness in that matter marked a interesting Criminal Day at 15-1-04, complete with two Sheriff's Deputies providing security, an unusual move for this court, much less any other District Court in the county. Three cases were continued, four were withdrawn pursuant to complance with summary agreements, and 1 case was waived up to Common Pleas Court. A bench warrant was issued for Jeffrey Chistopher Stair, 28, of West Chester, after failing to appear for his two cases listed on the docket (though the warrants were executed early Saturday morning in unusual circumstances - see "Gotcha!" for the details). And away we go...

In the lone hearing which took place today, Shabazz Ray (15-1-04, CR-0000243-07) and Michelle Lee "Doobie" Adderton (15-1-04,. CR-0000260-07) faced charges of Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver and related offenses. Ray was also charged with Resisting Arrest when he attempted to flee from officer and allegedly engaged them in a struggle in front of his East Miner Street residence. At the start of the hearing, Adderton had been seated in the gallery with some of her (ahem) acquaintances as opposed to sitting at the defense table. As the hearing progressed, Adderton and friends were just chatting away as if the matter was no big deal. Eventually, Judge Knapp eventually ordered Adderton to sit next to her attorney at the defense table and the hearing proceeded.

On July 27 at around 23:00, Cpl. Josh Lee and Ofc. Chris Craig were on patrol in the area of Matlack and Miner Streets when they observed both defendants and several other known drug users in the area. A witness testified that he was flagged down by a friend and was allegedly approached Adderton about purchasing drugs. He claimed that a few minutes earlier, Adderton told him that he "just passed" Ray without saying anything further, implying that Ray was selling narcotics in what Ofc. Craig described as a high drug area. Ofc. Craig based his opinion on the fact that he personally made four drug related arrests in the past two months.

The witness allegedly gave $60 to Ray, based on the word of a defendant he considered a friend. At that point, Ray allegedly walked towards Miner Street. Cpl. Lee, who was driving the patrol car, approached Ray, who allegedly ran from the car towards a residence on the 100 block of East Miner Street. Ofc. Craig then attempted to apprehend Ray by tackling him from behind and placing the subject in a choke hold, due to the fact that he had suspicions that he had injested several small packets of an unknown type controlled substance. No drugs were recovered, however $191 in cash found in five separate folds were recovered.

Ray was held on one count each of Resisting Arrest, Possession of a Controlled Substance With Intent to Deliver, Possession of a Non-Controlled Substance With Intent to Deliver, two counts of Disorderly Conduct, and four counts of Conspiracy. He remains committed to Chester County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Adderton was held on one count each of Possession of a Controlled Substance With Intent to Deliver and Possession of a Non-Controlled Substance With Intent to Deliver, and four counts of Conspiracy. She had been free on unsecured bail, however what happened next changed that status completely...

At the conclusion of the hearing, Adderton was promptly placed under arrest on a new set of charges, relating to allegations of intimidation of a witness. During his testimony, the witness at the hearing indicated that he did not want to be present in court. Though nothing concrete has been made available at this point, all you have to do is put two and two together and figure out what the deal is. In any case, Adderton now faces a total of 10 counts of Intimidation of a Witness and is now being held at CCP in lieu of $5,000 bail (15-1-04, CR-0000278-07).

It's possible that the case may be reassigned to another court, due to Judge Knapp's knowlege of the original case (which would require her to recuse herself) though without having an opportunity to review the criminal complaint on the new charges, it's pure speculation. That said, since the only active cases Adderton has at the District Court level were out of Judge Knapp's court, that's a distinct possibility.

A look at Adderton's record isn't exactly pretty:

On February 19, 1995, Adderton pled guilty to Filing a False Police Report to Law Enforcement by Judget Leonard Wood (ret.) after an incident filed by Coatesville Police on October 14, 1994. Conspiracy, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphanalia, and Endangering the Welfare of Children were nolle prossed in exchange for a 15 day to 6 month jail term (CP-15-CR-0004257-1994).
On September 27, 1995, Adderton pled guilty to Resisting Arrest stemming from a May 31, 1995 incident in West Chester and was sentenced by Judge Howard F. Riley, Jr. to 9 days to 23 months at CCP plus 100 hours of community service (CP-15-CR-0002341-1995).
On September 15, 1997, Adderton pled guilty to Simple Assault stemming from an incident in West Chester on February 7 of that year and sentenced by Judge Robert Shenkin to 4-to-23 months at CCP (CP-15-CR-00000644-1997).
On September 13, 2001, Adderton pled guilty to Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver and sentenced by Judge Thomas Gavin to 2 years probation (CP-15-CR-0002153-2001).
On June 21, 2004, Adderton pled guilty to welfare fraud and was sentenced to 2 years probation by Judge Phyllis Strietel and ordered to pay $1,356.89 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (CP-15-CR-0002153-2004).

In addition to the new charges, Adderton is presently awaiting trial in front of Judge Ronald Nagle for Obstructing Administration of Law or Other Governmental Function and four counts of Disorderly Conduct stemming from a June 10 incident where she was verbally abusive towards Ofc. Greg Cugino and other officers as they attempted to arrest a suspect who fled from them in an unrelated matter (15-1-04, CR-0000187-07; CP-15-CR-2654-2007).

That wasn't the only legal drama that played out in court yesterday morning:

Daniel John Hohenadel, 26, of Malvern, had appeared in front of Judge Knapp on May 11 to enter into a Summary Disposition agreement on a charge of Driving Under a Suspeded Driver's License/DUI Related (even though this particular charge is a Summary Offense, there's a mandatory 60-to-90 day jail term is convicted, which is why most of these cases are heard during Criminal Days) in which he was required to complete an undetermined amount of community service within West Chester and pay a fine - which is the standard summary agreement with the court of certain misdemeanor offenses (usually drug related).

The charges leading to the agreement, and a related charge of Driving the Wrong Way on a One-Way Street, stemmed from a traffic stop by Ofc. David Hammond in late March (15-1-04, TR-0003069-07 & TR-00003070-07). The DUI related suspension stems from a 2003 case in which Hohenadel was admitted into the ARD program and, according to limited court records, appeared to have successfuly completed (15-1-01, CR-0000707-03; CP-15-CR-0000638-04). It appears that the DUI-related portion of the suspension attached to the ARD disposition came after racking up numerous traffic offenses in Chester, Delaware, Lancaster and Bucks counties over the past several years.

Within the past couple of weeks, Hohenadel allegedly turned in a completed community service form that was later determined to be forged. As a result, Ofc. Hammond investigated further and filed a new case against Hohenadel. Because of the forged document being filed in her court, she will be required to recuse herself and the case will be reassigned to another judge by District Court Administration (15-1-04, CR-0000271-07).

And finally, there's the case of Christopher K. Hamrick. Hamrick, 29, who now resides in the Los Angeles area but has family and friends in West Chester, was arrested on Tuesday for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Public Drunkeness (15-1-04, CR-0000267-07). Under normal circumstances, Hamrick would've been cited from the station and summoned to appear in court, but he had been scheduled to return to California in a matter of days, hence the arraignment and posting of 10 percent of $5,000 bail.

In any case, Hamrick's lawyer had argued unsuccessfully that the drug case shouldn't have been prosecuted since he would've only been given a citation and likely released. However, Judge Knapp ruled that the PD charge was citable, hence the charges were allowed to stand. Hamrick's case was continued to October 19 to allow the defendant, in his attorney's words, to take positive actions in order to show good faith to both the court and the arresting officer.

The interesting part of this matter was that Hamrick and his attorney had stepped out of the courtroom to get some coffee rather than sit through the Ray/Adderton drama, not realizing that the hearing had ended and that the Commonwealth was prepared to request a bench warrant. Fortunately, (1) Judge Knapp had the good sense to note that the hearing had went longer than anticipated and both men had not indicated a desire to leave the court before addressing the matter and (2) they had been waiting in court to have their case heard. The hearing would've been heard after Hamrick's matter except that the deputies needed to get back to the courthouse due to staffing needs. In any event, cooler heads and common sense prevailed and that put an end to an intersting Criminal Day at 15-1-04...