Mom complains of conditions in county prison

WEST CHESTER >> A Chester County woman accused of assaulting her daughter in their home and then resisting police efforts to take her into custody remains incarcerated after a discussion about her case with the judge assigned to hear the matter.

Common Pleas Judge David Bortner on Friday ordered that the case involving Takeesha Lovelace be continued to his May trial list after her attorney said she had rejected both options of taking the charges against her to trial or, in the alternative, accepting a guilty plea offer made by the prosecution.

Lovelace was charged with

simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and resisting arrest stemming from an incident in June at her home on East Lincoln Highway in Coatesville. Her teenage daughter allegedly told police Lovelace punched and scratched her, wrestled her to the floor, and threw a plate of hot food in her face.

But Lovelace told Bortner that she wanted to be released from Chester County Prison to await her trial, and would be save for a detainer holding her for a violation of her probation on an earlier case.

The mother of three said that she had been unable to meet the terms of a possible release set forth by her probation officer because prison officials would not help her get the mental health treatment an evaluation had determined she needed. She also said her high blood pressure was not being addressed by the prison staff.

‘This is not something that I am making up,” Lovelace told the judge during the brief proceeding. ‘I haven’t seen my family for over a year.”

She also said she had not been able to communicate with her attorney, Alex Silow of West Chester, who she had previously asked Bortner to remove from her case. She had communicated with county officials about her treatment at the prison, but had as yet been unsuccessful in getting treatment.

Bortner said that while he was not “unsympathetic to your situation,” there was little if anything, he could do to change whatever conditions she found herself under at the prison.

“I am not trying to be unhelpful,” Bortner said. “But it would be improper for me to pick up the phone and talk to someone at the prison (about her treatment needs.) I can’t help you with that.” He noted dryly that her choices consisted of pleading guilty to some or all of the charges or go to trial, since “it seems pretty clear that the Commonwealth is not going to drop the charges.”

He also said that “for better or worse,” Lovelace would have to accept Silow’s court-appointed representation, unless she could hire her own attorney or represent herself. “You’ve got each other.”

The judge said the case would be continued until his trial session beginning May 10. Her options then would be to accept whatever plea offer Assistant District Attorney Emily Provencher has made, or demand a trial — although her case has several dozen others ahead of it on Bortner’s docket.

Lovelace was arrested July 1 by Coatesville police after an officer, Eric Himmel, was called to the home she shared with her husband, Jeff Martin, and her children. Arriving, Himmel found Lovelace’s daughter at the front door with scratches on her face and arms and with food on her clothing. Lovelace was being held on the floor by Martin.

The girl told Himmel that she had been lying on a couch when Lovelace threw her feet off the sofa and began punching her in the stomach and scratching her in the case. They ended up on the floor when Lovelace allegedly threw hot food on her.

When Himmel attempted to take Lovelace into custody, she resisted, he said, refusing to drop a plate and fork she was holding. She had to be restrained on the floor and carried out of the house, after refusing to walk to a waiting patrol car

She was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Grover Koon of Valley, who set bail at 10 percent of $25,000. It was unclear when she was able to post bail, or what the underlying charge is for which she is being detained on the probation violation.