Kasey Dischman

The most serious charge against a woman who allegedly overdosed while seven months pregnant was tossed by a Butler County judge on Thursday.

Judge William Shaffer issued the order dismissing the felony charge of aggravated assault of an unborn child filed against Kasey R. Dischman, 30, following a hearing on Tuesday.

The case will proceed, however, on three additional charges, which were later added by the prosecution.

Shaffer's order allowed those charges — misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and possession of a controlled substance — to be held for trial after a new preliminary hearing.

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. 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.

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.”

Dischman's attorney, Public Defender Joseph Smith, also previously argued that the additional charges should be dismissed due to falling under the state's Good Samaritan law, which provides immunity for people who report or experience overdoses.

Smith argued that Dischman should be considered immune because the incident was reported by her boyfriend, Andrew Lucas, who remained at the scene and cooperated with police.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford, who is prosecuting the case, argued that for the immunity statute to apply the caller must cooperate, which Lucas did not do when he lied to police about Dischman's condition.

In his order, Shaffer ruled against Dischman's ability to invoke immunity through the state's Drug Overdose Response law, and said that all other charges against her could proceed in court.

The defense now has 30 days to file additional pretrial challenges, according to the order.

On Friday, Smith said he was pleased by the decision, saying “the court made the appropriate decision given Pennsylvania law.”

He said the defense will proceed defending the other charges and will be filing pretrial challenges testing the legality of the immunity issue, as well as how the police department came to get statements from Dischman.

Smith said Shaffer's decision is an important message to pregnant women that if “they are struggling and seeking medical attention, there is a blanket immunity here and it applies across the board.”

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 Lucas, who called 911.

Police said Lucas denied there was drug activity at the home, but later acknowledged he had used heroin. Dischman would also later admit that she injected herself with heroin she found under the couch, police said.

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.

Pitchford did not return messages for comment Friday.