A Northampton County jury has just returned a mixed verdict against political consultant Tom "Scissorhands" Severson. While exonerating him of terroristic threats and simple assault, the jury found the campaign maven guilty of harassment as a misdemeanor. Chester County Senior Judge Charles Smith also convicted Severson of summary disorderly conduct.
Correction: When I originally posted this report, I mixed up the harassment and disorderly charges. I have fixed my error and will wear a woolsack for the next day as my penance.
35 comments:
seems like everyone blew this out just for a simple slap on the wrist. isnt there anything more interesting out there?
Should resources have been spent on this?
Severson Innocent in Mixed Verdict: Campaign maven found guilty of being disorderly at church funeral after crybaby complains his feelings were hurt, but found not guilty of more serious, trumped-up allegations of attempted murder, arson, and threatening to defile nuns.
His behavior at the funeral us just the tip of the iceberg of is hideous and antisocial antics in public. It is a shame he got off so easily.
we are lucky nobody got hurt. next time tommy will either injure or be injured.
guilty of telling someone off? yeah, that is a really serious crime. i'm sure many wish they could tell off angle. it is a shame that such expensive resources were wasted for this case to go to trial. the only person who should be prosecuted here is angle - for his perjury on the stand.
A jury has decided that Severson is guilty of harassment as a misdemeanor. A judge convicted him of disorderly conduct. His actions were criminal. No one is above the law.
Yes, resources needed to be spent on this matter. This thug disrupted a funeral mass. He threatened Angle, Mary Ensslin and am elderly gentleman. For too long, he has been used to doing what he wants when he wants because he is pals w/ the DA.
Severson had one of the best lawyers in the LV, and George Heitczman did a terrific job. But today Severson learned that no one is above the law.
You can despise Angle all you weant but this does not change what the jury did, and its actions were fair to everyone. I'm really amazed at how 12 people can so often get it right.
Really all that happened today was that the jury found him guilty of what he admitted in his own statements to the police. This could have been taken care of with a plea bargain. Criminal harassment under the PA code can be as little as making an indecent statement to another person, which Severson admitted he did. The prosecution did not prove anything itself, and in fact the jury chose not to believe Angle's testimony or Severson would have been convicted of much more.
The PA statutory definition of criminal harassment:
§ 2709. Harassment
(a) OFFENSE DEFINED.-- A person commits the crime of harassment when, with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another, the person:
(1) strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects the other person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same;
(2) follows the other person in or about a public place or places;
(3) engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly commits acts which serve no legitimate purpose;
(4) communicates to or about such other person any lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene words, language, drawings or caricatures;
(5) communicates repeatedly in an anonymous manner;
(6) communicates repeatedly at extremely inconvenient hours; or
(7) communicates repeatedly in a manner other than specified in paragraphs (4), (5) and (6).
Sections 4-7 are misdemeanors. I don't think any of us can say we haven't committed this crime in our lives - saying a curse word with the intent to alarm or annoy someone. It's just that most people are mature enough to deal with a simple "f you" by ignoring it and moving on.
Really all that happened today is that Tom Severson was convicted by a jury. He is now a criminal. You try to minimize harassment as though it is not even a crime. Apparently, the legislature has a different view. So do I.
Harassment as a misdemeanor requires a bit more than what you outline originally. It is also a stretch to suggest, as you do, that the jury disbelieved Angle or Ensslin. Perhaps they did not believe him. Perhaps they did believe him but did not think Severson was serious, i.e, did not think there was an intent to terrorize.
I'll agree that this could have been resolved via guilty plea and you and I both know that resolution was satisfactory to Angle. He was even willing to accept an apology.
But don't downplay what happened. Severson committed a crime. The fact that you don't think it's a crime is irrelevant. Severson today also learned a valuable lesson - no one is above the law.
Hundreds of thousands of crimes are committed every day. Driving 26 in a 25 is a crime. But there's something called prosecutorial discretion which the State AG's office clearly forgot about. I do not know Angle personally and I have no clue what outcome would have been amicable to him, but what I do know is that the decision to accept a plea bargain or an apology instead of prosecuting an alleged offense is not his. Once he filed a criminal complaint, even if he dropped the charges, it was still up to the prosecutor to pursue this and in doing so the State AG wasted a lot of money in what appears (from your recounting of the questioning in your previous post) to be a thinly veiled attempt to bully a suspect about a completely unrelated crime in the hopes of getting him to make statements under oath that could be used in later prosecutions for election law violations.
You are correct. How charges are disposed is entirely up to the prosecutor. He obviously exercised his discretion to refuse to show any leniency to Severson, even though that would have been fine with Ron. Now do you think he was doing this because he is some prick, burning flies w/ magnifying glasses? Or don't you think it's possible that he may have had some good reason for not exercising that discretion?
Throughout the pendency of this matter, I've heard all kinds of stories about Severson. I've heard about him approaching potential witnesses. I've heard about him approaching actual witnesses thru an intermediary. I've heard about Gemma Turtzo's widower enduring someone repeatedly parking their car in his driveway at night, turning off the lights. I'vew hear of statements made to the AG's office.
If I've heard these things, so has the AG. I suspect he has his reasons for playing hardball with someone who has a well-sdeserved reputation as a hardass.
Boonie, arguably you committed the more serious crime of forgery when you signed your client's name to a settlement document without telling him, but you are always down playing your crime.
When the subject gets a little uncomfortable for the Joe Long Dems, they try the usual bait 'n switch. If I were you, I'd start explaining to voters why you're using a convicted criminal to run your campaigns. Not only that, but you still owe him $7 large.
If a few of these commentors were on the receiving end of Tom Severson in manic mode, they might think differently. He's done worse to people who were afraid to press charges, especially because he likes to flip knives around. He is relentless in trying to trash anyone he perceives as not bowing to his ego. It doesn't matter who his victim was, it's still money well spent.
I'm curious about the interest taken in Severson's business practice of hiding / laundering money through California. Were you surprised at how informed the prosecutor was or at the questions asked?
I was shocked by the detail at his command. He knew all about Ryback's race against Joe Brennan in '06, all about the anonymous mailers that Severson used against Monahan, all about Severson's work for the local machine Dems. He was using no notes. That's an indication, at least to me, that another shoe is about to drop.
O'Hare your Angle mancrush has gone to new lows, or is that on the down low? You allege witness tampering and witness intimidation as why the prosecutor pushed the case.
Hopefully Severson gets this and sues you. Not because he will get anything but for the same reason Angle sues so many people to be a prick and a bully.
For all you know the Prosecutor may have offered Severson the apology route but he naturally refused. Who in their right mind would ever apologize to Angle.
So the Proecutor ignored witness threats and tampering which could result in real jail time to get what amounts to a summary offense conviction.
I'm surprised the Judge didn't scold both Angle and Severson for wasting everyones time with this nonsense.
Ever notice how whenever there is a problem, Ron Angle isn't far away.
Here we go w/ the weekly libel threat. A prosecutor might ask a judge for a separate sentencing date so he can call witnmesses. He can rthen elicit exactly what was going on. it might not rise to the criminal level, but it will tell the judge all he needs to know before imposing sentence.
In this case, the AG did ask for a separate sentencing date so he can call witnesses. Hmmm.
The defendant has a right to a trial either by jury or by judge. The defendant also may plead guilty and save the county the expense of a trial. The decision to go to a jury trial was the defendant's. He was offered a chance to plead to the lesser charges prior to the trial but refused. The defendant was in complete control and made the decisions that lead to the final outcome.
10:01 - Plea negotiations are confidential, so how are you privy to whether or not the defendant was offered a plea bargain, or the details of what was offered? Of course a defendant can always plead guilty, but why would he do that if he knows he's not guilty (as he was found to be in 1/2 of the charges in this case)?
This whole episode was developed and executed by the Pennsylvania State Republican machine to punish one of their tribe that crossed the line and worked for the enemy Democrats.
This whole episode was developed and executed by Tom Severson, widely known as the King of Sleazeball Politics. He took it upon himself to disrupt a funeral mass and is now a convicted criminal.
How did you avoid conviction for all your wrongdoing Bernie?
The Republican Party had nothing to do with Severson's behavior in a church. He can't control himself and is responsible for his own situation. He has little control over his temper, lacks maturity, and threatens people. The brat has at least been spanked.
Lackawanna County,
When the subject gets a little uncomfortable for the Joe Long Dems, they try the usual bait 'n switch. If I were you, I'd start explaining to voters why you're using a convicted criminal to run your campaigns. Not only that, but you still owe him $7 large.
Will Angle ever feed Mr. Johnson? Will stoffa ever discharge his asst. Dir. of Administration who prints a newsletter when he is there?
Boonie O'hare repeating his comments in answer?
Hmmmm, guess he isn't happy that Severson has joined his Criminal club
I am forced to repeat my comments because the same attacks are repeated over and over.
Beenie
It seems sissorhands was found guilty of being a jerk at a funeral. You and Ron should be glad there isn't wide spread prosecution for being a jerk. Furthermore Ron should be glad he doesn't get charged for making a phony report to the police. The truth is a jury didn't believe it because it wasn't true. Ron is the little boy who cried wolf, he like to think of himself as a tough guy but he is the coward of the county and this phony episode proves that.
The reality is that Severson was convicted of two crimes. Being a jerk is not a crime. The jury may have disbelieved Angle's statement that he saw 2" of what he thought was a knife, or they may have believed Ron but may have concluded that Severson had no intention. But they did conclude that Severson is a criminal. A state AG was willing to spend the time to demonstrate that no one, including Severson, is above the law.
Hmmm... isn't that the office of the same State AG that Severson was running a campaign against? And didn't that same AG use the fact that Severson was under an investigation, an investigation that the AG himself is running, against Severson in campaign ads? Sounds like a conflict of interest to me! I think this was more about a public witch burning than the search for truth and justice. I've never seen so many newspaper stories about a simple exchange of profanity (that only 2 people seem to have heard, mind you).
The State AG was willing to spend the time prosecuting in order to demonstrate his muscles against his opponents, not to seek truth and justice. How convenient that he chooses Severson to make an example of.
What you are doing is spinning. What the deputy AG deed was the job Morganelli should have been doing - enforcing our criminal laws.
If the AG's motives here were purely political, an indictment against Severson would have been announced before the election.
Apparently, the AG does not pervert criminal process for political purposes. He also does not simultaneously act as prosecutor and defense attorney for one of his cronies.
No one is above the law. That's a lesson Severson needed to learn, thanks to a DA who let him run wild.
When do you think Angle will learn that lesson?
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