Appeal filed in OD case
Butler County prosecutors are challenging a judge's decision earlier this month to dismiss a felony charge of aggravated assault against a woman who allegedly overdosed while seven months pregnant.
The appeal was filed Monday to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania regarding the Oct. 20 decision by county Judge William Shaffer, who dismissed a felony charge of aggravated assault of an unborn child filed against Kasey R. Dischman, 30.
The certification of the appeal, signed by Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford, states that Shaffer's order “will terminate or substantially handicap the prosecution.”
Shaffer issued an order following the notice of appeal that the prosecution has 21 days to file a “concise statement of errors complained of on appeal.”
Dischman was charged in June with felony aggravated assault of an unborn child following her alleged June 23 overdose, which resulted in an emergency cesarean section and her baby being prematurely delivered.
Shaffer, in his order, said prosecutors were overreaching in their attempt to charge Dischman with aggravated assault using Pennsylvania's Crimes Against the Unborn Child Act. He said Dischman was clearly protected from prosecution by a clause in the law that exempts pregnant women from prosecution for crimes against their unborn children.
“The Defendant is alleged to have done a senseless, selfish and heinous act that, allegedly, resulted in devastating and permanent injuries to her unborn child,” Shaffer's order reads, in part. “This court is nonetheless constrained by the clear, plain and unambiguous language of (the law) and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision ... to find that our legislature intended for prosecution under the Crimes Against the Unborn Child Act, to barred as a defendant, a then pregnant woman, for crimes against her then unborn child.”
The case was set to continue on three additional charges which were later added by the prosecution — misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and possession of a controlled substance — after they were held for trial following a new preliminary hearing. She was scheduled for status conference today, as well as jury selection on Nov. 30.
The additional charges were later added based on evidence that Dischman's 8-year-old daughter was present in the house at the time of the overdose, and that a hypodermic needle was found there.
The case remains inactive pending that appeal.
Dischman's attorney, Public Defender Joseph Smith, said he plans on filing a motion to quash the appeal “as procedurally improper at this time” if it is picked up by the appellate court.
“This motion will be addressed in due course if the appellate court decides to take the case,” he said.
Pitchford was unable to be reached for comment.
Dischman was charged after police said she injected a bag of heroin found beneath her couch, allegedly overdosed on the floor of her bathroom, and was later found by her boyfriend, who called 911.
She was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest before being flown to UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and subsequently placed on a ventilator. While there, blood work determined that opioids were in her system and she was then transferred to Magee-Women's Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh, where doctors performed the emergency C-section.
Dischman remains held in the Butler County Prison on $500,000 cash bail, as well as a six-month resentence for a parole violation stemming from the overdose.
