CLEARFIELD – During a special hearing on Wednesday afternoon, President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman questioned why an endangering the welfare of a child case was not included in a plea agreement for a Rockton man.
Zachary Clinchoc, 35, was sentenced by Ammerman to six months to three years in state prison on Monday for three cases.
The fourth case involved a six-month-old child left alone in Clinchoc’s home with inadequate supplies, on Aug. 4, 2022. There were also accusations he was smoking methamphetamine.
Clinchoc was charged with misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person. After a preliminary hearing on Oct. 14, 2022, all charges were held to court.
On Tuesday a motion to dismiss the case was presented to the court by the District Attorney’s office, but Ammerman was not willing to sign it.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Ammerman commented that “this is a case to be concerned about” and asked why it wasn’t resolved with the other cases.
Ammerman reviewed the history of the case in which court records indicate Clinchoc signed a plea agreement for a criminal trespass case and the endangering the welfare case in July 2023. A transcript confirmed District Attorney Ryan Sayers had stated the plea included those two cases.
When it was discussed in September, it was mentioned he had new cases being filed.
“We talked about the case, but no one mentioned there was no plea on the record” on the endangering case, while there was one on the criminal trespass case, Ammerman noted.
As the other cases moved through the system, there was no plea agreement ever filed for the endangering the welfare case, and when sentencing was scheduled for Monday for three cases, it was not included. And, Ammerman noted, it was not even mentioned.
First Assistant District Attorney Leanne Nedza responded that there was never a plea agreement for the endangering case, and she was unsure why Sayers said there was one. (Sayers was unavailable for the hearing.)
Her notes say there was a 90-day plea for the criminal trespass case and the other case was going to be withdrawn. She explained this decision was made because when the witness testified in the preliminary hearing, she “minimized” her initial claims regarding the conditions of the home.
To further impede the prosecution of the charges, Clearfield County Children Family and Youth Services had closed the case and the child had remained in Clinchoc’s care until he was picked up on the parole violation and sent to state prison.
Ammerman questioned why there was nothing filed earlier, again asking why it wasn’t mentioned during the sentencing hearing. It came to the court’s attention after someone contacted probation asking what happened to it. Only after that did the DA’s office file the motion to dismiss.
“This appears to be a serious case that fell through the cracks,” Ammerman said.
He then referred to a previous case, which had a “side agreement” discovered in the DA’s file that wasn’t made known to the court. This was found by a member of the probation office after they reviewed the file.
Following that incident, the DA’s office made a new policy that employees of the probation department could no longer access their files and needed to get their information for pre-sentence investigations from the clerk of courts office, attorneys or the district judge.
Nedza defended this by saying as they discuss plea agreements, they make notes, which they did not want probation employees to be able to copy because their negotiations are between the attorneys in their office and the defense counsel.
Ammerman commented that he understands the DA’s office is overwhelmed, but some of their information is not being filed for “months and months.”
When questioned, Domenic Cicchinelli, attorney for Clinchoc, said he agreed with how Nedza represented the situation and added they were trying to get the cases resolved. He submitted information from CYS regarding custody of the child who is now living with his grandfather.
Although Ammerman assured Nedza he was not questioning her integrity, he stated he was not going to approve the motion to dismiss the case. Instead, it will be added to the trial list.
On Monday, Clinchoc pleaded guilty to felony criminal trespass and disorderly conduct in one case, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and a summary in a second, and possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia in the third case.
Ammerman rejected the plea for a 93-day sentence and asked for a minimum of six months, which Clinchoc agreed to accept. Ammerman then sentenced him to serve six months to three years in state prison, which will run consecutive to his current state parole sentence.
According to the affidavit of probable cause in the endangering case, police received a report that Clinchoc had left his six-month-old child alone in his apartment for an undetermined amount of time.
Further investigation revealed that Brayden Lee Smith, 19, was babysitting but had to leave. He texted Clinchoc, who sent someone else to the home. She arrived between 20 to 30 minutes after Clinchoc’s call to find the child alone.
The baby was sitting in a jumper chair in the “extremely cold” home, she said.
The apartment reportedly had no supplies or proper sleeping accommodations for the child.
Smith told police he “barely knew” Clinchoc but agreed to watch his son. After he took the child out of a car seat, he noticed the baby was very cold and had purple/blue spots all over its legs. It also appeared the child had “not eaten in some time”.
He commented that there were no supplies for the baby in the apartment and that he heard that Clinchoc “smokes marijuana and methamphetamine around the child.”
Smith explained that his girlfriend received an important message about her own child, and they needed to leave. This is when he contacted Clinchoc, who responded that someone was on the way to the apartment to care for the baby.
Smith said they waited about 30 minutes before they left the child alone. He stated he knew he shouldn’t have done this “but didn’t know what else to do.”
When investigators spoke with Clinchoc, he said Smith was watching the child for him but texted saying he had to leave, which was when he contacted the witness to go to his apartment.
He said he “didn’t think Smith would leave the child alone.”
In November, Ammerman sentenced Smith to serve 30 days to one year in the county jail with 18 months concurrent probation.
It was noted at that time that he is required to continue to cooperate in the case against Clinchoc.