Many more people face charges in brawl

Most will be charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and failure to disperse.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- The Mercer County district attorney said as many as 16 more people will be charged in the brawl that ended the Sharon-Farrell high school basketball game Feb. 2.
Atty. James Epstein said Sharon police are preparing charges against 12 juveniles and four more adults involved in the melee. The charges should be filed next week.
Most of them will face charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and failure to disperse upon order of a police officer, but one will face a more serious assault charge in an attack on a police officer, Epstein said Friday.
So far, only one person has been charged in the case.
Guilty plea: Jesse J. Wilson, 20, of Sherman Avenue, Sharon, a former Farrell football player, pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
No players from either team were involved, authorities have said.
Epstein said police interviewed 70 witnesses as well as all 38 police officers who were involved at the scene in the Sharon gymnasium that night.
The fight started between a man and a woman and quickly spread as police moved into the stands to try to break it up. Police estimated that between 70 and 100 people were involved. They said some in the crowd appeared to turn on police officers.
The disturbance spread to the commons area in the school just outside the gym and later to the emergency room of Sharon Regional Health System's hospital, Epstein said.
Police reported that some in the crowd tried to grab their guns from their holsters.
Witness: Epstein said authorities did have one witness who saw a person try to grab an officer's gun, but investigators were unable to determine which officer was involved and they couldn't identify the suspect, Epstein said.
The district attorney said it appeared that a number of young people failed to realize that the law says they must obey a direct order from a police officer to disperse or step away from a situation such as the one that occurred at the school.
The law doesn't give them the right to challenge that order at the scene ,but they could challenge it in court later, Epstein said.
Games canceled: Sharon school officials canceled the scheduled football and boys' basketball games with Farrell for the 2002-03 school year, but Epstein said he would like to see that athletic rivalry continue at some point.
"This is an aberration," he said of the melee that ended the Feb. 2 game with less than two minutes on the clock.
gwin@vindy.com