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| Cosmo DiNardo led into Bucks County prison |
The circumstances surrounding the dismissal of a felony gun charge against Cosmo DiNardo earlier this year remain unclear and have authorities pointing fingers following his arrest last week as a quadruple murder suspect at the end of one of the largest police investigations in recent county memory.
Bucks County Court Administrator Stephen Heckman, who oversees county district courts, said the charge was dismissed because paperwork submitted in the case lacked a necessary doctor’s signature confirming DiNardo was involuntarily committed under section 302 of the state's Mental Health Procedures Act. A psychiatric emergency is one of the few health problems that can result in someone being held against his or her will.
Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub insisted this week that the paperwork for the 302 commitment was properly prepared and signed, but he declined to release a copy of the paperwork prosecutors presented at DiNardo's preliminary hearing.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, DiNardo told Bensalem police about a past "involuntary commitment to a mental institution" when they found him in possession of a 20-gauge shotgun and ammunition in February.
Bensalem police, though, requested the 302 commitment records from the wrong places, not the county's mental and behavioral health agency, which maintains the completed and sealed documents, according to Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, who investigated the matter.
In an email to this news organization, Bensalem Director of Public Safety Fred Harran said his department doesn't often request mental health commitment records as part of a criminal case.
The probable cause affidavit provides no other details about the arrest of DiNardo, the 20-year-old son of two local business owners, including where it occurred in the township or how the officer found the Bensalem resident in possession of the weapon. He was arraigned before District Judge Maggie Snow, who released him on $25,000 unsecured bail with conditions that included he wasn't to possess firearms.
The affidavit described DiNardo as a “subject known to be suffering from mental illness" and having been involuntarily committed, which would make it illegal for him to own or use a firearm.
The preliminary hearing on the gun possession charge was continued three times before it was held on May 30, and the charge was dismissed for reasons that are not entirely clear, according to a review of documents in the case filed in District Judge Michael Gallagher’s court in Bensalem. Gallagher declined comment and referred questions to Heckman. Available public records do not identify the county prosecutor who appeared at the February preliminary hearing, but that is not unusual.
No transcript of the proceedings was in DiNardo’s court file, and it’s unknown if a record of the proceeding exists. Defense attorneys typically have a stenographer make a record of preliminary hearing proceedings.
Sources with knowledge of the preliminary hearing said that DiNardo's attorney, Michael Parlow, raised objections about the "missing doctor's signature" on the involuntary commitment paperwork.
A little more than five weeks after the May 30 dismissal, authorities said, DiNardo shot and killed Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township. Two days later, DiNardo and his cousin, Sean Kratz, 20, of Philadelphia, allegedly murdered Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown; Tom Meo, 21, of Plumstead; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County. The men were lured to a Solebury farm owned by the DiNardo family over several days earlier this month, where they were killed and buried, authorities say.
Authorities allege a .357 Magnum handgun that belonged to DiNardo’s mother, Sandra DiNardo, and a .22 caliber rifle were used in the murders. Harran declined to comment on how many guns the Bensalem family owns.
A Pennsylvania State Police spokesman said a past involuntary commitment doesn't prohibit someone from living in a household where firearms owned by someone else are present.
Records in the case file for the gun possession charge show that, in a March 24 email, Bensalem Detective John Monaghan requested Gallagher authorize a subpoena for “any and all” records pertaining to the involuntary mental health commitment of DiNardo. The request, however, didn't include the correct agency, Ellis-Marseglia said.
Instead of requesting the records related to DiNardo's July 12, 2016, involuntary commitment from the Bucks County Mental Health/Developmental Programs, the police in an email asked the district judge to subpoena Lenape Valley Crisis Services and Doylestown Hospital for the records "showing the 302 was upheld after initial evaluation." Lenape Valley, Bucks County’s emergency mental health service provider, has a unit at Doylestown Hospital.
The same day that Monaghan made the request, Gallagher issued subpoenas for someone from Lenape Valley Mental Health Crisis Services to appear at a March 29 preliminary hearing and produce any records pertaining to DiNardo’s 302 commitment. Gallagher also issued a subpoena for Doylestown Hospital to appear at the same hearing and bring “any and all records” related to DiNardo.
But those agencies wouldn't have had the completed 302 paperwork on file because it was filed with the county mental health agency, which can release them only with authorization from Pennsylvania State Police, according to agency administrator Donna Duffy-Bell.
Once state police authorize the county to release the records, they are forwarded, Duffy-Bell said.
She also said her agency receives “very minimal” requests — fewer than five a year — for 302 records from police. She added that her staff has in the past reviewed the proper process for requesting 302 commitment records in its crisis intervention training sessions with law enforcement.
The Bucks County District Attorney's Office authorized Bensalem police to refile the original firearms possession charge against DiNardo June 21, according to court documents. Harran said the refiling was delayed because the arresting officer — who is the one who has to re-file the charge — was on vacation, then assigned to overnight patrol when she returned. The gun possession charge was refiled July 10, after authorities began searching the DiNardo family's Solebury farm as part of the investigation into the missing men who were later found murdered.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @JoCiavaglia
How 302 commitment works with gun possession
- If a 302 involuntary mental health commitment is upheld by the evaluating physician, it provides for up to 120 hours of treatment. Upon the upholding of the 302 by the evaluating physician, the county mental health office submits to the State Police and county sheriff's office written notification per the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act.
- If the 302 is not upheld by the physician, no notification is sent to the State police or Sheriff’s office. It is as if the 302 did not exist.
- If the 302 is approved/upheld by the physician and the person stabilizes within 120 hours or the person converts to a voluntary admission, then a 303 hearing does not have to be held. The person still cannot possess guns, however, because the 302 was upheld.
- If the 302 is approved/upheld by the physician and, at a later date (even years into the future), the person wants to file for an expungement of the original 302, he/she can do that through the Court of Common Pleas. If the Court finds for the individual, his/her name will be removed from the data bases at the Sheriff's office, State Police, and the Department of Mental Health. The person then could possess firearms.
- If a person who has been the subject of an approved/upheld 302 attempts to purchase a firearm by misrepresenting that he/she has a 302 history on a gun purchase application, local authorities can choose to press charges. In such cases, the process that is to be followed is that the local authority needs to make a request for records to my Department through the State police. Sealed records documenting the executed 302 are provided once the request is received from the State police. These charges are usually heard at the Magisterial District Justice level
Source: Bucks County Mental Health/Behavioral Health Department
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