Fire investigation leads to arrest in Racquet Club fire

Posted: Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The 15-year-old told police that he thought he was helping when he emptied the ashtray that his father used before going out without him.

Photo by Jo Ciavaglia/Courier Times

Instead, the boy, who has the mental ability of a 6-year-old, accidentally started a four-alarm fire that destroyed 43 units at the Racquet Club apartments in Middletown, displaced about 100 residents, and injured himself and his father, who is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

On Monday, police charged Hugh McKavanagh, 59, who now lives in a Bristol Township motel, with the first-degree misdemeanor in connection with the July 26 fire at Building B in the Veterans Road complex. He was released after posting 10 percent of his $15,000 bail.

Police say that McKavanagh left his mentally challenged son, who lives with him, alone in the apartment July 26 for 45 minutes during which time the fire started.

“It’s very miraculous the boy was not injured more than he was,” Middletown Fire Marshal James McGuire said. “This was a recipe for a disaster.”

Police say that McKavanagh admitted leaving his son alone around 8:30 p.m. to go over to drink at a friend’s apartment within the complex. He told police that he could see his apartment from his friend’s home.

After about a half-hour, McKavanagh said he and his friends decided to go to Parx casino in Bensalem. While walking back to his apartment to change his clothes, McKavanagh saw the building was on fire, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

After McKavanagh couldn’t get into the building because of the smoke and flames, he and a friend coaxed the boy out onto the apartment’s second-floor balcony and convinced him to jump, according to court documents. The friend caught the boy, who suffered an arm injury and smoke inhalation.

Photo by Jo Ciavaglia/Courier Times

McKavanagh was treated at Temple University Hospital for serious burns to his feet, when he tried to enter the burning building.

A police officer who interviewed McKavanagh at the hospital the night of the fire noted the odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath and person, according to the affidavit. Hospital medical records revealed that McKavanagh told a nurse at Aria Health he was drinking earlier that night.

An emergency medical technician who treated McKavanagh at the apartment complex told police that he smelled of alcohol and was actually drinking alcohol when the rescue squad arrived to treat him. He added McKavanagh appeared intoxicated at the time, according to the affidavit.

The boy’s mother, who lives in New Jersey, told police their son had moved in with his father so he could attend a specialized school in Northeast Philadelphia. She said her son has an I.Q. of 42, considered a low-functioning cognitive range.

The mother told police her son requires “constant” supervision and “cannot be left alone,” according to the affidavit.

Photo by Jo Ciavaglia/Courier Times

At St. Mary Medical Center, where the boy was treated, a nurse told police that the boy told her that his father drank one beer and smoked a cigarette before leaving the apartment. After he left, the boy said he emptied the ashtray into the trash can to “help clean up.”

The boy’s mother told police that cleaning is one of her son’s favorite things to do.

Later the boy saw a fire in the kitchen, police said, though McGuire, the fire marshal, says his investigation found the fire did not start in the kitchen, but in a dining room/living room area.

The official cause of the fire is listed as undetermined, but nothing has been found to discredit the boy’s version of events, McGuire added.

o Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Bucks County Peace Center creates circle of safety from bullies

Posted: Wednesday, October 30, 2013

In middle school, Courtney Miller was a smart, outgoing, athletic girl who hung out with the popular kids. So why did she end up spending much of seventh grade hiding in the guidance counselor’s office, too scared to go to class?

Bullies, she said. For six long months, they made school unbearable.

Girls wrote profanity on her books. They threw her belongings in the trash. They threatened her. They spread gossip about her. Worse, they ostracized her.

While schoolyard bullies are as old as playgrounds, they no longer single out only the weak. They’ll pick on anyone — even other popular kids, behavioral experts say. And, they say, bullies have moved beyond old-fashioned physical attacks, to inflicting emotional pain through exclusion and public humiliation aimed at damaging the target’s relationships with others.

The national spotlight has returned to the subject of bullying with the recent arrest of two Florida girls — ages 12 and 14 — on felony aggravated stalking charges in connection with the suicide of a 12-year-old girl they allegedly bullied.

Historically, much of the media attention and research involving bullying and its prevention have focused on the perpetrators, not the victims.

Enter Courtney, now a 15-year-old junior at Neshaminy High School. While she has a busy academic and social schedule, she makes time to teach others kids that they can survive bullying — like she did.

At weekly meetings in the Bucks County Peace Center’s Langhorne headquarters, kids in grades two through eight meet with Courtney to learn healthy ways to handle emotional stress and confrontation and to build their confidence. The group — called the Beyond the Bully Support Circle — recently entered its second year.

While the kids meet downstairs, the parents meet upstairs with Peace Center staff members to get support and advice about dealing with their own issues related to their children’s bullying.

The support group started with three kids, but it quickly grew to about 35, said Karin Kasdin, director of the Peace Center’s Bullying Prevention Resource Center.

The program has been so successful that the Peace Center recently started groups in the Bristol Township and Palisades school districts. Like the one in Langhorne, the youth support groups are led by trained teens such as Courtney who were once bullied but overcame the experience and want to help others do the same.

The goal of the support circle is simple: provide a safe place where kids can share their bullying experiences with other kids, build self-esteem and learn coping and anger management strategies, Kasdin said.

“We found that kids are more likely to open up about their feelings to older kids than they are to adults, whom they perceive to be in the teacher or counselor category,” she added.

They also learn that they are far from alone in their experiences.

Finding support

Games are a big part of the kids’ weekly meetings, which are also overseen by an adult supervisor.

One activity has the kids running in place until they feel better. Another involves reverse role playing, where the bullied person plays the part of a bully and the group discusses ways to handle similar confrontations.

At a recent meeting, Courtney had members practice how to walk with confidence. She reminded them not to show bullies that their actions or words are hurtful.

“If (the bullies) don’t think they’re winning, it’s not fun (for them),” she told the kids in her group, who have experienced bullying that ranges from name-calling to violence. At their request, we agreed not to identify the bullied kids or their parents.

In sixth grade, “S” was poked a dozen or more times a day by a classmate. Another student threatened to burn her with a glue gun. Classmates also invented a game called “Kick S.” The winner was the person who kicked the girl the most times during the school day.

But the physical confrontations were only part what “S” endured. Classmates would turn their backs on her and push her desk away from others. She was the last picked for any group activity. The situation grew so dire, that “S” started experiencing panic attacks and nightmares, her mom said. She missed the last 10 days of seventh grade last year because she refused to go to school.

“L” started being bullied in third grade, her mom said. Nothing physical, but girls called her names. Last year, her grades dropped and she showed signs of stress. The situation got so bad that when her parents dropped her off at school, “L” would start crying.

“I’m stupid,” “L” would tell her mother.

During a recent support group meeting, an 8-year-old talked about getting kicked and scratched in school and called rude names.

How did you beat them? Courtney asked him. He enrolled in a new school, the boy said, a move that most kids in the support circle on this particular night had done.

Courtney understands.

Her bullying started over a boy who liked her, much to the dismay of the other popular girls who were her friends, she said. The situation resolved itself after the bullying girls were suspended for two days, she said.

Eventually, each girl apologized to her, Courtney said, and she hasn’t been bullied since.

“I would have been able to get through that experience quicker if I had that kind of support,” she said about her support group.

Teaching parents

Anyone who believes bullying isn’t as bad as it used to be is right, behavioral experts say. In many ways, it’s worse.

“With the advent of social media, bullying has become more widespread in that it is 24/7. It is everywhere you go,” Kasdin said. “We’re finding kids are feeling really violated, publicly. What is public is also permanent.”

Recently, the Peace Center worked on a case that was forwarded to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office after the bullied teen snapped and hit his bully, Kasdin said. Because of fights, local police have been called several times to one of the schools where Kasdin works.

Research has upended the belief that bullies are often insecure kids with low self-esteem, Kasdin said. More recent studies show that typical bullies are the popular kids. Bullies are smart, too. They know exactly how far they can go.

Kasdin recalled one recent incident involving a girl who wrote on a Facebook page that another girl should die. The parents of the girl to whom the threat was directed called police.

But when the police showed up at the girl’s house, she simply told the officer she never threatened to hurt the girl, she only suggested the girl should die. The police legally couldn’t take any action against the bully, Kasdin said.

Such legal roadblocks are frustrating for parents of bullied children, who often feel as lost, alone and frustrated as their kids.

“You know you’re not the only ones going through it, but it feels like it,” said one mother, whose son, “J,” was bullied in seventh and eighth grades.

The Central Bucks resident learned about the support group last week at a local anti-bullying seminar. Her son, now a ninth-grader, is doing better. He recently stood up for himself in gym class after one of his bullies confronted him.

“You definitely see it working,” she added.

While the kids meet downstairs, their parents learn about anger management, effective confrontation and conflict management and coping skills. The Peace Center staff also will intervene on behalf of parents with school officials to resolve ongoing bullying issues.

Parents say talking with people going through the same experiences as them is beneficial. They often trade advice and ideas, especially about dealing with anger.

“L’s” mom said she doesn’t know what she’d have done without the Peace Center. Her daughter, now a fifth-grader, is doing better. The bullying has stopped.

“It was my last resort; I didn’t know where else to turn,” she said of the center.

The mom of “S” said the parents group has helped her deal with her daughter’s bullying in a more productive way with school officials.

“They helped me take a deep breath and say the things that needed to be said in a way that was rational and reasonable,” she said.

While she resisted attending the meetings at first, “S” now gets upset if she has to miss a support group meeting. She plans to do a Girl Scout badge project on bullying awareness.

What made the biggest difference for the girl, who’s now 13, is the ability to talk with girls her age who have shared the same bullying experiences.

“It helps me work through the issues I’m having,” “S” said. “I can hear their stories.”

While “S” no longer attends the school where she was bullied, she’s still coming to terms with her experience, her mom said.

“She isn’t there yet,” her mom added, “but she is on her way.”

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Cops: 2 women charged in separate heroin-related deaths

Posted: Friday, September 27, 2013

Bensalem police have charged two women who allegedly supplied heroin that killed two people in separate incidents hours apart earlier this month in what may be among the first local prosecutions under an enhanced law for drug delivery deaths.

Nicole Marie Lavery, 39, no fixed address, admitted buying the drug in Philadelphia and providing a bag to Megan Boni, 26, who subsequently overdosed and died early Sept. 1, according to authorities.

Later that same day police say Bensalem resident Rhiannon Radetzky, 22, admitted buying heroin and providing it to her friend — 23-year-old Francisco Lopez — who later died of an overdose at her home.

Nicole Lavery (left) and Rhiannon Radetzky

The first incident happened at the Radford Motel in the 4000 block of Bristol Pike in Bensalem. Police responded to the motel for an unresponsive woman — later identified as Boni — around 5:30 a.m. Lavery and Boni’s boyfriend were also in the room and told police they were watching TV, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Boni was taken to Aria Health’s Torresdale campus where she died shortly before 7 a.m. police said. A subsequent autopsy determined the cause of death was “drug intoxication,” according to the affidavit.

When police interviewed Lavery, she said the two met in drug rehab and she believed Boni was addicted to “benzos and crack” referring to benzodiazepines, a drug that treats various conditions such as anxiety, depression and muscle relaxation, and crack cocaine.

“When asked about drug use, Lavery originally denied any drug use, stating she had been sober for months,” according to the affidavit.

Boni’s boyfriend, though, provided a different series of events prior to the fatal overdose, police said. The man had not been charged in the case as of Thursday.

He claimed that Lavery and Boni were at a bar in Delaware County and Lavery kept talking about wanting to “get high,” court papers said. The three drove to Philadelphia where Lavery bought heroin. The trio then headed to the Radford.

Soon after the three got to the motel, the boyfriend said he noticed something was wrong with Boni, though he didn’t see her take any drugs. Boni was snoring loudly, which wasn’t normal for her, the man said, according to the affidavit.

The snoring eventually stopped and he checked on Boni. He woke up Lavery, who told him that Boni just needed to “sleep it off,” court papers said.

When the boyfriend checked on her 20 minutes later he found her unconscious and her lips turned bluish, police said.

Again, the man said he woke up Lavery and told her to call 911. Instead of immediately calling for help, the man said that Lavery went into the bathroom two or three times first, according to police.

Police responded to the second overdose shortly after 10 a.m. when they were dispatched to an Allison Court home for a report of a man in cardiac arrest. 

When police arrived they found Lopez dead on the floor of a bedroom.

Officers found blue wax paper bags commonly used to package heroin on the floor next to him and in an adjacent bathroom and other paraphernalia common among heroin users, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

An autopsy later determined that Lopez died of “drug intoxication.”

Radetzky, who lives at the home, told police she was with Lopez the previous night and he stayed overnight. They went to sleep around 2 a.m. and when she woke up shortly before 7:30 a.m. she found Lopez on the floor making a “gurgling” noise, according to the affidavit.

In an interview with police, Radetzky told police that when she found Lopez unconscious she asked a roommate what she should do. He told her to call 911.

But Radetzky said she thought that Lopez “just had to sleep it off,” according to court documents. She put a blanket over him and a pillow under his head, police said.

When she checked on Lopez again around 9 a.m. she heard him making “gurgling” noises “so she thought he was fine,” Radetzky told police, court documents said.

Shortly after 10 a.m. Radetzky’s grandfather came over to the house and he called 911, police said.

Radetzky admitted that there “might be” text messages or phone calls in her cellphone in reference to buying drugs, court documents said. She also told police she set up a purchase of heroin from a drug dealer she knows in Philadelphia and bought the heroin the night before. She also gave some of the heroin to Lopez at her house.

Lavery was arraigned Wednesday night before Penndel District Judge Daniel Baranoski on drug delivery resulting in death, recklessly endangering another person and related charges. She was sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000.

Radetzky was arraigned Thursday before Bensalem District Judge Joseph 

Falcone on drug delivery resulting in death of victim, recklessly endangering another person and related drug charges. She was sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $500,000 bail.

Under a July 2011 change in state law, the grading for drug delivery resulting in death was increased from a third-degree felony to a first-degree felony. It also doubled the maximum prison sentence from 20 to 40 years and made it easier to prosecute cases.

Previously, the law required that prosecutors prove a defendant showed “malice” — meaning the person acted with extreme disregard for human life — to get a conviction on the charge. Now prosecutors have only to prove a defendant delivered the drug and that a death resulted from that drug.

Police: Firefighter paid friend $200 to set fire

Posted: Sunday, September 29, 2013

A 19-year-old Bensalem probationary firefighter faces arson charges after police say he paid a friend $200 to set a fire in the laundry room of an occupied apartment building after firefighters failed to respond to the first fire they set.

Bensalem police connected Alberto Acevedo, of Knights Road, with the Aug. 20 fire that evacuated 80 people at the Bucks Meadow apartments after his friend, who was arrested last week on burglary and arson charges, implicated him, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The fire was reported around 11:30 p.m. in Building 1 of the Knights Road complex.

Alberto Acevedo

A police officer who arrived first at the scene tried to enter the laundry room but the door was locked. He forced open a locked window and climbed inside the burning room where he found thick paper and other materials on fire, according to police.

The officer stomped on the fire and used a trash can to smother the flames. He then filled the trashcan with water from a laundry tub to extinguish the fire. Meanwhile, police evacuated the building and fire departments arrived on scene.

No one was injured in the fire. A subsequent investigation determined that the fire was intentionally set and resulted in $2,000 in damages.

The case remained unsolved until last week, when police interviewed Robert Schaeffer, 19, in connection with a burglary. During the interview, Schaeffer admitted setting fires, two in the laundry room at Bucks Meadow a month earlier.

He told police that he set trash and other debris on fire, left the laundry room, then called 911 to report the fire, according to the affidavit. He and Acevedo then walked to a nearby shopping center to watch firefighters extinguish the fire, police said.

Robert Schaeffer

Schaeffer also said that Acevedo gave him $200 to set the fire after the fire department didn’t respond to a fire the two men had set in the same laundry room earlier that day, according to police.

On Thursday, Bensalem police interviewed Acevedo, who admitted he was with Schaeffer drinking Baccardi Limon Rum the afternoon of Aug. 20 in the laundry room of Building 1 at Bucks Meadow. Acevedo gave Schaeffer his black undershirt and watched him douse it with the rum and place the shirt and other items into a dryer and set them on fire, according to court documents.

The two ran away and waited for the fire department to respond, but the fire burned slowly, Acevedo told police, according to court documents. No smoke showed for 15 minutes.

A short time after the smoke appeared, an apartment maintenance man discovered the fire and extinguished it, the affidavit said.

Later that day, Schaeffer told Acevedo that he was going to start another fire in the laundry room and “cause a wreck,” court documents said. Acevedo never made any attempt to contact emergency services after the fires were set, police said.

Acevedo is a probationary member of the Eddington Fire Co., which serves the Bensalem area including the Bucks Meadow apartments. He is also a former member of the Third District Fire Co. in Bristol Township, police said.

Acevedo was arraigned Thursday before Penndel District Judge Daniel Baranoski on arson and related charges. He was sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

Baranoski arraigned Schaeffer Sept. 21 on arson, burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment charges. He also is in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

How crooked contractors skirt state law

Posted: Monday, September 9, 2013

A state law designed to protect against home improvement fraud contains loopholes that allow contractors convicted of fraud to continue working, even possibly appear on the state-required registry, according to Bucks County's head of consumer protection office.

Director Michael Bannon also questioned how closely the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office is vetting and monitoring registered contractors under the state’s four-year-old Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act.

He cited two recent home improvement fraud cases where the contractors with prior histories of civil complaints and criminal convictions continued working in home repairs and construction. Bannon said he’s also found other contractors with customer complaints filed against them on the registry.

“In many cases there are situations where someone owns the business and runs the business, but doesn’t do contracting work. I understand why it’s that way, but what happens is homework not being done on some contractors,” Bannon said.

John Salvatico

Since 2009, contractors in the state who perform at least $5,000 worth of home improvement work have been required to register with the Attorney General's Office every two years. 

The law also requires contractors to provide the state detailed background information including criminal complaints, civil judgments and bankruptcy filings, imposes new, harsher penalties for offenders and lets homeowner easily verify that a potential contractor is state registered.

Melissa Etshied, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Builders Association, which helped write the law, pointed out the registration should not be interpreted as a state endorsement of a contractor.

“We are not aware of loopholes in the Act that would allow convicted or accused contractors to remain on the list,” Etshied added.

Not so, according to Bannon. Among the biggest holes, he says, is the law doesn’t automatically bar a contractor with criminal convictions for fraud or theft from obtaining a state registration.

NO TEETH

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office confirmed that it has no power to “deny” a registration because of previous crimes, civil judgments or bankruptcies without a court order.

Rather, the law “expressly directs” the office to issue a registration certification after an application is completed and the fee paid.

While the state can “deactivate” a registration if a contractor provides false information on an application or fails to pay the $50 application fee, the contractor can reapply to be listed, again, unless there is a court order that prevents it, according to the Attorney General’s Office. As of last December, 2,768 contractor registrations in the state had been deactivated since 2009, according to the AG’s office.

There also is the lack of any provision in the law that requires registered contractors accused or convicted of home improvement crimes to immediately cease operations without a court order.

Bannon learned about that glitch after the owner of Doylestown Roofing & Siding, an unregistered home improvement company, was convicted a second time of bilking a homeowner.

Steve Dunner

Steven Dunner, 34, was on probation for a prior contractor-related fraud conviction in 2011 when he took $28,000 in deposits from three Bucks County homeowners but never performed the work he was paid for. Dunner was sentenced to two to 10 years in state prison last year.

Dunner, who has other theft-related convictions, also managed to obtain state registration after his 2011 conviction, Bannon said. At his sentencing last year it was revealed that he lied about the past convictions on his registration application.

Bannon said he was shocked to learn after the second fraud conviction that Dunner could apply to be a registered contractor. His office requested and received a court order from a Bucks County judge to get, and keep, Dunner off the registry.

SKIRTING LAW

Another way that contractors can skirt the law is getting a third party, like a friend or relative, to register as a contractor and then hire the questionable contractor as an employee.

That appears to be how Doylestown contractor John Salvatico allegedly continued working in home improvement after his most recent conviction in 2008 for deceptive business practices related to a family contracting business. 

Salvatico and his brother Joseph pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court to bilking six homeowners and were each sentenced to 11½ to 23 months of jail time and 10 years of probation.

Recently, Salvatico was accused again of fraud, theft, deceitful business practices, forgery and related offenses in at least four towns in Bucks and Montgomery counties involving his failure to complete work he was paid for. In at least one of the cases, officials said, Salvatico told the homeowner and township that his name was John Farabella.

Salvatico allegedly was working as an employee of Eastern Construction & Roofing LLC in Doylestown, which has been registered as a state contractor since May. The state lists Eastern Construction’s owner as Virginia Schaffer, who authorities say is Salvatico’s wife.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office says it monitors the activities of its registered contractors primarily using information provided by the public, including local police and district attorney offices. Contractors are also required to report to the state any disciplinary action taken against them and a state website includes those details.

As of Friday, though, Eastern Construction & Roofing LLC in Doylestown is still listed on the state registry; it also lists the company’s “associated individuals” including managers, as not involved in any home improvement related crimes or recent civil judgments.

Bannon, who also helped draft the contractor law, believes it’s a great tool for identifying contractors when complaints or concerns are filed with his office. It has made tracking down crooked contractors far easier, he said.

“But it hasn’t been able to stop them,” Bannon added. “I would think if you have a conviction of home improvement fraud, that would prevent you from getting a registration number."

More child porn charges filed against 80-year-old Lower Makefield man

Posted: Wednesday, October 2, 2013 

An 80-year-old alleged child pornographer is headed to trial with 30 more sex crime charges against him.

Thomas Holliday, of Edgewood Road in Lower Makefield, initially was charged with 62 counts each of sexual abuse of children and photographing or videotaping a child sex act on a computer, as well as charges of indecent assault on a person under age 16, sexual contact with a minor and related child sex charges.

The additional counts were added Wednesday during a brief court appearance in Morrisville District Judge Michael Burns' courtroom. Now the total counts against Holliday stand at 92. 

Holliday waived all the charges to Bucks County Court for trial. He remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of $5 million bail.

Lower Makefield police allege that Holliday sexually abused a girl starting when she was 15 years old and captured the abuse on still images and video.

Detectives reviewed more than 70 CDs that were turned in to police, which, they allege, show an underage girl engaged in sexual activity with Holliday. Several CDs showed Holliday allegedly taking still photos of the girl.

All the CDs were dated and time-stamped before the girl turned 18, police said.

Thomas Holliday

Police also viewed three CDs made before the girl turned 16 in which Holliday can be seen groping or touching the girl in a sexual manner and the girl is heard or seen on the video telling him “no,” and “stop,” as she pushed, kicked or slapped Holliday, according to court documents.

After the hearing, Holliday’s attorney, Ron Elgart, said he and prosecutors are working to negotiate a plea deal. He added that Holliday’s health has significantly deteriorated since his arrest.

Holliday, who appeared thin and frail, used a cane to walk and he had a loud cough, which he attributed to emphysema.

Lower Makefield police started investigating Holliday after allegations surfaced that he had been abusing the girl since 2009, according to a probable-cause affidavit. An adult relative of the girl turned over CDs she took from Holliday’s house and that the girl claimed captured the abuse, according to police. The earliest CDs were dated 2009 and the most recent January 2011, police said.

On the CDs, Holliday also is seen labeling and packaging CDs in brown wrapping paper. The girl asks Holliday whether he is mailing them, and he tells her yes, according to the affidavit.

During the video he also asked the girl if she knew what he was doing when he wrapped a piece of paper around something on his desk, court documents said.

“So the trash men don’t find it,” she replied, according to court documents.