KYLERTOWN – A hearing that should have concerned with a harassment count became one of Boggs Township’s actions with relation to a proposed landfill in the municipality.
Boggs Township resident Frank Norris, 60, was before Magisterial District Judge Michael Rudella Friday morning to answer for a summary harassment count.
He was charged with calling Boggs Township Secretary/Treasurer Denise Dobo a lewd name following the municipality’s December meeting.
Norris’ attorney, Bruce Manchester, asked all of the commonwealth’s witnesses as well as Norris himself the nature of Boggs Township meetings and whether they had potential to be “intense.”
All of the witnesses, including two Boggs Township supervisors, agreed that meetings could be intense, with Dobo saying, “I’ve never seen it in all my 24 years (as a secretary) like I’ve seen it with (the landfill) issue.”
Manchester called into question the supervisors’ position on the landfills and whether deals were made “behind closed doors.”
Manchester said the issues he raised because, “The discourse took place as a result of a very controversial issue.”
“You had a lot more leeway than I normally do in a harassment hearing,” said Rudella, who also noted that the Sunshine Act violations that were alluded to would need to be addressed in later actions.
Norris was found guilty of a summary harassment count for calling Dobo a lewd name. He will have to pay a $25 fine and costs of $125.50.
Norris now has 30 days to appeal the decision.
It marks the second time in as many months that Norris has been before a district judge to answer for a harassment count. Both he and his wife, Paula, were found guilty of following Boggs Township Supervisor Bill Dickson when he went to Alice’s Pub after the October township meeting. The couple then went inside the restaurant where Paula used her cell phone to photograph Dickson and others gathered inside.
Both were found guilty in that case and ordered to pay a $100 fine. Both have also filed an appeal in that case.
