Phil Boyle Of The Morning Call December 14, 2000, Thursday First Edition Copyright 2000 The Morning Call, Inc. The Morning Call (Allentown) December 14, 2000, Thursday First Edition
(BETHLEHEM TWONSHIP, Pa.) -- A Bethlehem Township police officer who allegedly watched his son fight a Freemansburg teen in September will not be charged with a crime, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said.
Morganelli said his investigation into the incident, which involved Patrolman Patrick McFadden, “did not find anything that would warrant filing any criminal charges.”
Morganelli ruled Nov. 8 that no charges would be filed against the boys involved in the fight. He said the teens “had a spat, and now it is over with.”
Debra Napolitano filed complaints against McFadden and his son Shawn, 18, alleging that her son, Kerry A. Korpics Jr., 18, of Freemansburg was beaten up about midnight Sept. 11 by the younger McFadden.
Napolitano claimed Patrolman McFadden stopped her son on Juniata Street in Freemansburg and told him, “I hear you have a beef with my kid,” and ordered her son to follow him to Freemansburg Elementary School.
She said McFadden told her son to wait at the school while he picked up his son, brought him back to the school in his patrol car and “he then watched the two kids beat the hell out of each other.”
Kerry A. Korpics Sr. said Tuesday night he was not happy with Morganelli’s decision “for the simple fact any other citizen could not get away with that. I don’t see why police should be above the law.”
The father said the fight would never have happened if McFadden “would not have orchestrated and refereed this fight. There could have been serious injuries, and he was responsible for the whole incident.”
The elder Korpics said he “knew the fix was in when Morganelli asked me what should I charge this fellow with. I got a law book and found a half-dozen charges I could have filed.”
At a November Freemansburg Borough Council meeting, the elder Korpics said that after the fight, his son had five stitches in his mouth, a concussion and bruised kidneys and a surgeon had to drain blood from his ear.
He said that when he went to the Freemansburg Police Department to file a complaint, he was treated rudely and told there was nothing that could be done.
He said Tuesday that right after he was in touch with Morganelli, his son and nephew got death threats over the Internet.
“The amazing part is right after I notified Freemansburg police of the death threats, they stopped, and nobody has been charged” in those incidents, either, Korpics said.
Reporter Phil Boyle
610-861-3636
philip.boyle@mcall.com