Jury: Prison Guard Fired Gun in Self-Defense
By Laurie Mason Schroeder, Staff Writer
A Bucks County jury in Doylestown late Wednesday found county corrections officer Anthony Pekarski not guilty of illegally firing a gun while engaged in an off-duty street brawl last year.
Pekarski, 26, of Bristol Township, sighed with relief as he left the courtroom.
"I thank the jury, and I love my lawyer," he said.
The panel of nine women and three men deliberated for more than five hours before acquitting Pekarski of simple assault, recklessly endangering other persons, and disorderly conduct. A charge of possessing a weapon was dismissed after the prosecution rested its case.
"Anthony Pekarski maintained his innocence from day one," said defense attorney Louis Busico. "He always felt that he was backed into a corner, that his life was in danger, as were the lives of his friends."
The verdict capped a three-day trial in which Busico argued that Pekarski fired a handgun in self-defense while fighting with Pearson Crosby, 28, on a Northampton street corner in the early morning hours of June 21.
The two men were among a group of people who had been drinking at the La Stalla restaurant in Newtown. They had not met before that night, but had mutual friends.
Pekarski told police that he ordered Crosby, of Northampton, out of the car at the intersection of Buck and Mallard roads because he believed Crosby had said something offensive to Pekarski's girlfriend, who was sitting in the back seat. The argument spilled out onto the street, where the men engaged in a fistfight.
Pekarski said that he fired two "warning shots" into the ground because Crosby came at him with a knife.
Crosby, a U.S. Marine and mixed martial arts instructor, testified that he was walking away from the fight when Pekarski shot at him. He told the jury that he heard the bullets whizzing through the bushes and he believed he was going to be killed.
Police did not find any spent bullets embedded in the ground, or any other evidence that would suggest "warning shots" were fired.
Prosecutor Ryan Hyde told the jury that Pekarski shot at Crosby in anger because he was frustrated at losing the fistfight.
"If you pick a fight with a bigger guy, sometimes you're going to get punched in the face. If you get punched in the face, you're not entitled to fire a gun," he said.
Busico said Crosby was the aggressor, and that Pekarski only shot the gun out of fear after Crosby began talking about killing people.
"This man was drunk, confrontational, and armed with a weapon."
Busico reminded the jury of Crosby's changed his story on the eve of trial, admitting to police for the first time on January 9 that he did have a knife in his belt during the fight. The lawyer asked the jury to consider how credible Crosby's story was.
"Who lies to the cops, folks? Good guys or bad guys?"
The jurors seemed to struggle with their verdict, returning to the courtroom several times during their deliberations to ask county Judge Diane Gibbons to clarify the legal definition of self-defense. Their questions focused specifically on a suspect's duty to retreat instead of using deadly force. Hyde objected to that rule, saying if an attacker "displays or otherwise uses a weapon."
Gibbons scolded Pekarski after the verdict, noting that he and his friends left the scene of the fight after calling 911, then were "evasive" when explaining their side of the story to detectives.
"I would expect that, if you had any decency at all, that you would apologize to the Northampton police. You put them in danger. You should be real proud of yourself."
Hyde declined to comment, saying he was disappointed Crosby was not in court Wednesday.
Pekarski has been suspended from his job without pay since his arrest. Busico said his client is now looking forward to getting on with his life and putting the incident behind him.
"This is a law-abiding person who has never been in trouble before. The last thing in the world he ever wanted to do was act out impulsively. He did what he had to do to save other people. That's it. He's not proud that he fired his weapon and put in an extraordinary set of circumstances, and thank God he didn't injure more people."
Laurie Mason Schroeder: 215-694-7489; lschroeder@calkins.com; Twitter: @BucksCourts
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