After this spree, in late 2017 and early 2018, his record had grown to more than a dozen arrests since 1993, according to court records. Eight of those involved charges of violence and/or making threats. The three recent cases have been resolved in Allegheny County courts, and he’s again freed to walk the streets of his suburban town.
Standing on the steps of the Allegheny County Courthouse, after another appearance meant to sway a judge to put him behind bars, the teenager’s mother said they plan to go into hiding.
“I’ve done that before,” said Grace (a pseudonym), who was in an eight-year relationship with the man. She said her ex’s rage comes in sprees, when he burrows deeper into drug and alcohol addiction. In the past, she has stayed with friends he doesn’t know or left town after his arrests.
According to court records, Grace’s ex has never served more than 10 months in prison for assaulting his friends and family over the years. Grace said she sees the pattern by which he evades lengthy sentences. “He has pled down all the charges and faces new [lesser] charges,” she said. “He should be considered violent, but he isn’t, on paper.”
To take a closer look at domestic violence prosecution, PublicSource evaluated the 789 cases closed in 2017 by the Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit of the Allegheny County District Attorney Office. For that year, it was rare for anyone to be convicted of a felony related to domestic violence.
Out of 312 cases that included a felony charge, 51 ended in a felony conviction.
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https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-domestic-violence-offenders-avoid-most-serious-punishment/
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