Monday, April 19, 2004
A woman reported the judge touched a girl inappropriately.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) -- Attorneys for a Monroe County judge charged with molesting a 10-year-old girl at a teen pop concert want statements their client made to authorities to be suppressed.
Attorneys for Judge Mark Pazuhanich also want a hearing to determine if the alleged victim is competent to testify.
Lawyers Frank Nocito and John Rogers Carroll said in a motion filed Friday in Luzerne County Court that statements Pazuhanich made to Wilkes-Barre police on Nov. 29, 2003, should not be admitted at trial. The motion says Pazuhanich had not been read his Miranda rights even though he was in "custodial custody."
Confronted outside
Wilkes-Barre police officer Harold Sereyka confronted Pazuhanich outside the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts shortly after Pazuhanich left the theater following a concert by teen pop star Hilary Duff. Pazuhanich had attended the concert with his daughter.
A woman in the audience told a security guard she saw Pazuhanich touch a young girl inappropriately during the concert. Sereyka informed Pazuhanich of the allegations against him and directed him not to leave the theater area. Pazuhanich's attorneys assert that he was in custody at that time, though he had not yet been arrested.
The motion claims Pazuhanich's arrest "was illegal, improper and in violation of the defendant's rights ... because it was a pretext arrest to allow the police to take the defendant into custody and question him regarding the said allegation of improper conduct. ... The defendant was subjected to custodial interrogation and was not advised of his Miranda rights."
The motion also requests that statements Pazuhanich made to a detective be thrown out for the same reasons.
Conflicting statements
The motion also says the alleged victim gave conflicting statements to experts who examined her, and that her testimony could be influenced by adults through a variety of means, including hypnotism.
Pazuhanich's motion says the girl's description of the alleged inappropriate contact varied slightly from one interview to the next.
The motion also says: "The defendant believes that [she] may have been subjected to hypnotic interviews at the Children's Advocacy Center. Hypnotically refreshed memory is inadmissible."
Pazuhanich, who has maintained his innocence, has been on paid administrative leave from his post as judge since early February.
His trial is scheduled to begin June 14 in Luzerne County Court.