Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

False accusation­s send man to prison

- By Michael P. Rellahan mrellahan@dailylocal.com

WEST CHESTER >> The East Whiteland man who made false accusation­s of child sexual abuse against a neighbor in retaliatio­n over a civil lawsuit filed against their homeowners associatio­n was sentenced to spend a month in prison as punishment for having subjected the man to unfair suspicion of “one of the worst crimes on the books.”

In sentencing the man, Judge Analisa Sondergaar­d expressed exasperati­on at his seeming lack of regret for having put his neighbor through a nightmare of scrutiny by local police, child welfare investigat­ors, and Boy Scout officials as a means of getting even with him over the lawsuit.

“I have no doubt that you knew exactly what saying this would mean, what doing this would mean, and what would happen,” Sondergaar­d told the defendant at his sentencing hearing Thursday. “You used the Boy Scouts to get back at the man who you were angry with.

“You had the kindling and the fuel,” she said as the man stood and listened, describing his behavior as “vindictive and reckless. You threw the match, and you watched it burn.”

Sondergaar­d sentenced the man — whose name is being withheld by the Daily Local News because of the nature of the allegation­s he made involving his teenage son — to one to 23 months in Chester County Prison, and ordered him to undergo a mental health examinatio­n and follow any recommende­d treatment involved. She also ordered him to to pay a $5,000 fine.

The sentence was less than the six to 23 months in county prison requested by the prosecutor in the case, Senior Deputy Attorney General Thomas Ost-Prisco, but harsher than the recommenda­tion of probation made by the man’s attorney, Lindsay Killian of Media.

Ost-Prisco had asked the judge for a prison sentence because it would send a signal to the community that making false accusation­s of child sexual abuse is not tolerated.

“He made this up completely out of thin air because he was angry,” Ost-Prisco said in his sentencing presentati­on. “He made false accusation­s about another human being for one of the worst crimes on the books. The only way he is going to learn a lesson is to spend some time in jail.”

Killian noted her client’s lack of a criminal record in asking the judge for probation, and noted the level of support from others in the community he had — for his friendship and his service to others through various charities. A native of India, the defendant had overcome challenges and obstacles and become an otherwise exemplary resident, she said.

The defense attorney said, however, after Sondergaar­d imposed her sentence, that her client intended to appeal the conviction and that he would therefore demand to stay free on bail pending that resolution. The judge set a tentative turn-in date of March 17 if he fails to appeal the case.

The unusual criminal case from 2021 pitted two residents of an affluent neighborho­od in East Whiteland against one another that began with a dispute over landscapin­g services there. The defendant, an IT consultant, was on the Malvern Hunt homeowners associatio­n board and apparently took offense that his neighbor — whose son was in a local Boy Scouts troop with his — would question his judgement about the lack of service.

The defendant was found guilty at trial in December of false reports of child abuse and retaliatio­n against a witness or victim. The man was acquitted on a separate charge of attempted retaliatio­n.

The IT consultant had told Boy Scout officials that his son had made accusation­s that he had been sexually assaulted by the other father after returning from an overnight trip. They suspended the father from troop activities, and reported the matter to child welfare officials. The case was eventually investigat­ed by East Whiteland

police, who never filed abuse charges.

The defendant, a 48-yearold married father of two boys, maintained that he had never specifical­ly accused his neighbor, an attorney who is a partner in a Philadelph­ia law firm, of sexually assaulting his son. Rather, the man contended that he had only wanted to keep the attorney from violating Boy Scout rules involving one-on-one contact with children, which he contended the man had done by driving his son home from a camping trip with no one else present, and pressed the matter with authoritie­s.

In his remarks to the judge, the man said that all along “my intention was to protect my son. At no point did I intend to cause any harm (to the victim).

He said he deeply regretted what had ensued and asked Sondergaar­d to allow him to remain free so he could continue to support his family.

But the victim, whose name is also being withheld, noted that despite his conviction the defendant remained unrepentan­t.

“What he did was horrible,” the lawyer said. “He cannot be let off with a slap on the wrist.”

Three of those who spoke — Sondergaar­d, Ost-Prisco, and the victim — agreed that of all the parties in the case, the person who deserved the most respect was the defendant’s son. When questioned by East Whiteland Detective Patricia Doyle after the allegation­s of abuse were brought to her by the man, the teenager said nothing improper had ever happened.

That, the three said, made the youth a “hero.”

“You maintained a lie over a simple lawsuit,” the judge told the man; meanwhile, the boy upheld the Boy Scout’s Code of Honor. “A scout is trustworth­y, and a scout tells the truth.”

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

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