Man busted for threats against hospital

WEST GOSHEN » Some wounds never heal.

West Goshen police have arrested a Westtown man who allegedly made multiple angry telephone calls to staff at the Chester County Hospital, at one point allegedly threatening to “shoot up the maternity ward,” according to a criminal complaint filed earlier this month.

The reason? The man said he suffers to this day from the forced circumcision he underwent as a baby born at the hospital in January 1995.

“Because of this circumcision, he now suffers from painful erections when sexually aroused,” the complaint, written by West Goshen Detective David Maurer, reads. The man said the pain, “has caused him to suffer … with mental health issues as a result.” He said he finds it difficult to have sex with partners, and “believes that if he had his skin he would not suffer from this pain.”

Albert Leslie Powell IV, 23, was charged with terroristic threats, a misdemeanor, and harassment stemming from the telephone calls, which occurred between November 2017 and June, when the

final call was reported to police by a nursing supervisor at the hospital, which is located in West Goshen.

He was arraigned by District Judge William Kraut of West Goshen after turning himself in, and released on $10,000 bail, unsecured. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 16.

Powell acknowledged in an interview making the calls, but said he had not threatened to shoot anyone. “He knows that would cause serious alarm,” the complaint states.

According to Maurer’s complaint, police were called to the hospital on June 19 after nurses in the Labor and Delivery unit received at least three phone calls from a man identifying himself only as “Jonathan.” The caller allegedly was upset over his

past circumcision, “against his will and without his consent,” and used obscene language in discussing the matter with the staff.

Officer David Spigarelli, who had responded to the report, said he checked a caller ID number that had appeared on the nursing supervisor’s telephone, but that it came back to a number in Georgia with no further information.

Later in the month, Maurer spoke with hospital Director of Safety and Security John Felicetti, who informed him that the hospital had received these type of phone calls from a similar person over the years. Checking records, the investigator learned that a complaint had been filed with the department in January by another nursing

supervisor. A caller named “Michael,” she said, had repeatedly called to complain about what happened to him 20 years ago.

The officer who investigated that report, Daniel Boyle, was able to trace a phone number to the caller, and left a message telling “Michael” to stop calling the hospital or face charges.

Felicetti told Maurer that there had been numerous calls beginning in November 2017.

“In at least one of the calls the unknown male became so agitated that he threatened to shoot up the maternity ward of the hospital.” In almost all the calls he used obscene language and called the staff with whom he spoke names.

Using the township’s data base programing for phone

numbers, Maurer was able to trace the call that Boyle had documented to a phone registered to a man in Westtown. When he and Detective Jose Torres went to the address to check on the owner, they encountered a man outside the house smoking a cigarette. The man identified himself as Powell, and agreed to speak with the investigators.

Powell reportedly told the pair that indeed he had made the calls, and explained his reasoning. He said he would get carried away during the calls, telling those he was speaking with they should “go hang themselves,” but said he did not threaten to shoot anyone. He also said he would use various aliases, and had also used a phone app that allowed him to disguise his number.