Man who issued threats has his probation revoked POTTSVILLE — A Pine Grove man who prosecutors allege threatened to shoot children unless the Schuylkill County Courthouse was closed is headed to state prison after being sentenced Monday in Schuylkill County Court for probation violations in two other cases. Todd D. Dohner, 48, must spend 12 to 33 months in a state correctional institution, President Judge William E. Baldwin ruled. “Do you have any idea the panic that created?” Baldwin asked Dohner of the alleged threat, which served as the basis of the probation revocation. “What you (did) was extensively disruptive to thousands of people in the community.” At a Nov. 3 hearing, Dohner admitted prosecutors could prove it was more likely than not — the standard for a probation or parole violation — that he telephoned the threat in October. Baldwin revoked his probation at that time in each of the two cases. On Monday, Dohner unsuccessfully asked Baldwin either to send him to Danville State Hospital, where he had previously received mental health treatment, or place him on house arrest. “I want house arrest because I’m alone with my dad,” testified Dohner, who wore a prison jumpsuit, leg shackles, handcuffs and a belt. “We watch out for each other. We’re a team.” Dohner said he spent 1½ years at Danville in the 1990s receiving mental health treatment. He said he would have his own room and a set treatment routine there. Assistant Public Defender Kent D. Watkins, Dohner’s lawyer, said Baldwin should not send his client to a state correctional institution for 18 to 36 months, as prosecutors had asked. “I question the rehabilitation effect” of such a punishment, Watkins said. “I believe that he is a prime candidate” for inpatient or outpatient mental health treatment. However, Baldwin said that while Dohner has mental health issues, he is not legally insane and must be punished for what he did. In the new case, Pottsville police charged Dohner with two counts each of terroristic threats, criminal use of a communications facility and disorderly conduct. Those charges are pending in the county court; the soonest Dohner could go on trial for them is the February criminal court term. Police said Dohner made two telephone calls to the courthouse, one late on Oct. 2 and the other early on Oct. 3, in which he threatened to shoot the children unless the courthouse was closed by noon Oct. 3. Dohner admitted making the calls in order to avoid paying fines he owed, according to police. Because he admitted only that it was more likely than not that prosecutors could prove he made the calls, his admission does not preclude him from pleading not guilty to, and defending against, the six charges resulting from the calls. Prosecutors will have to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In the two cases in which Baldwin sentenced him Monday, Dohner had pleaded guilty on March 20, 2013, to harassment in one case and indecent exposure in the second. Both incidents took place in 2012.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:33:46 +0000
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