Judge asks if charges should be tougher
District Judge Pete Shaffer on Monday ordered three men held for court on felony assault charges for allegedly pummeling and stomping an unconscious man outside a Butler bar.
But Shaffer wasn't finished.
Apparently so disturbed by the suspected crime, which left the victim comatose at a Pittsburgh trauma center with a broken and swollen face — unrecognizable to his mother — that the judge wondered if the trio of defendants should face attempted homicide charges.
“This shocks me,” Shaffer, visibly angry, said following testimony at the preliminary hearing for the alleged attackers.
He seemed to direct his outrage at the suspects, their attorneys and even the prosecutor.
“That person was unconscious and incapable of defending himself,” the judge said, his voice shaking at times. “These three defendants set upon (the victim), kicking him. I think their culpability rises above the level of aggravated assault.”
He even considered revoking the suspects' bail, calling them “dangerous.”
But in the end, Shaffer ordered the defendants — Kenneth J. Fetter, 35, Virgil M. Luster, 33, and Michael G. Weber, 34, all of Butler — to stand trial on the assault charges.
He also decided not to change the bail for the suspects, all who remain free.
Butler police charged the trio following an altercation that began about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 29 at My Buddy's bar on Pillow Street.
Randolph Dahl Jr., 35, of Butler testified at the hearing that he and a friend, 36-year-old James Raub of Butler, had gone to the bar near Pullman Park after drinking several beers at Raub's house nearby.
While seated at the bar, Dahl said, a man he identified as Luster came over and started calling him names.“He was trying to pick a fight with me,” Dahl said of Luster.Dahl claimed that he did not know the suspect but had seen him in the bar before. He also said he had never seen Fetter or Weber before that nightHe said he did not know why Luster targeted him.Later, Fetter joined with Luster in trying to goad Dahl into a fight. Weber at some point also moved in to see what was going on, Dahl said.The bartender eventually ordered the defendants to leave.Dahl said that he and Raub remained, drinking a shot and beer, before leaving five to 10 minutes later.But just as he got out the door, he testified that Luster ambushed him.“(Luster) started punching me,” Dahl said. He punched back. While the two fought, Dahl initially noticed Raub standing by the door against the outside wall.Dahl eventually got Luster in a headlock, and soon after heard “a commotion” coming from behind him.“I saw (Raub) come up and hit the ground and saw (Fetter and Weber) punch him in the face. I could tell Jim was unconscious cause he wasn't trying to defend himself.He yelled to Fetter and Weber, pleading for them to cease.“I said, 'Guys, stop. You're killing him,” Dahl testified.He said Raub was lying motionless on the street.“I remembered seeing a bunch of blood and thought I better call 911,” he said.Dahl said he let go of Luster. But as soon as he did, he testified, Luster “joined in and started kicking Jim.”Soon, all three defendants were kicking Raub.
Dahl said he opened the bar door and yelled, “Hey, someone call 911. They're killing my friend out here.”The suspects ran off before police got there.Raub was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital and then flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.Dahl was treated at the scene for two swollen lips and bumps on his head.Raub's mother, Kathy Watterson of Butler, outside the courtroom, said her son remained in the intensive care unit for five days in a medically-induced coma as a precaution, noting that in 2006 he had a stroke and open heart surgery.The beating left him disfigured with numerous broken facial bones as well as a fractured nose and fractured left eye socket. His badly bruised face was swollen well beyond its normal size.“I went to the emergency room at the hospital,” Watterson said, “and I didn't know who he was.”Raub, who lost 4½ pints of blood in the attack, also suffered a broken right femur.The father of two children, 14 and 5, Raub was released from the hospital 10 days later and he continues to recover from the ordeal, his mother said.Following the testimony, Shaffer turned to prosecutor Richard Bosco, a Butler County district attorney, and asked, “Is the commonwealth considering an attempted homicide charge on any of these three suspects?”The question seemed to take Bosco by surprise. He acknowledged it was “something to consider.”Watterson thought the question was long overdue.“I think they should all be charged with attempted homicide,” she said. “They almost killed my son.”
