Lawyer in drug-death case seeks delay in suit

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The attorney for a boy charged in criminal and civil court with providing a drug that killed a classmate has asked for a stay on the civil proceeding.

Joshua Stewart, who was 16 when Erica Jo Million died after taking oxycodone a year ago today , is facing a civil suit filed by Million’s mother, Veronica Million-Passerrello.

That suit, filed in November, asks in excess of $50,000 for wrongful death and for other damages.

Stewart, of Wallace Avenue in New Castle, also faces a criminal charge in juvenile court of possession with intent to deliver. District Attorney John Bongivengo confirmed that Stewart, now 17, is scheduled to be in court at 9 a.m. March 25 for a hearing on the charge. The hearing is equivalent to a trial in adult court.

Bongivengo said he is still considering whether to file a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Stewart. He intends to confer with Erica’s family and city police, he said.

Erica, 16, a sophomore, slipped into unconsciousness in a math class at New Castle High School on Feb. 27, 2007. She died March 4 from complications of the drug at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Keenan Holmes, an attorney with the Pittsburgh firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, asked Judge Thomas Piccione of common pleas court Monday to delay the civil case for at least six months.

Holmes said he brought the motion on behalf of Stewart’s mother, Charmagne Henry of New Castle.

Holmes argued it would be more efficient for the courts to settle the criminal case before going on to a civil case.

He also said that if Stewart is forced to defend both cases at once, his protection under the juvenile court system will be undermined.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Michael Balzarini of the Pittsburgh firm Balzarini & Watson, argued the discovery process in the case needs to proceed. He argued that if it doesn’t, a two-year statute of limitations would affect the plaintiff’s ability to include other people in the civil action.

He said the discovery process could uncover “other parties to join in the case.”

“The argument that he intends to get information from other people bolsters our concerns,” Holmes said. “It will be used against the minor in the juvenile proceeding.”

Judge Piccione will consider the motion in chambers.

Holmes said he is considering whether to represent Stewart in his criminal case. He said, though, that his area of expertise is civil law.

His client says he did not give the drug to Erica, Holmes said.

Bongivengo said he is confident that his office has evidence to prove Stewart did give it to her, though he would not elaborate.

Holmes classified Stewart as “a good kid.” The boy who got A’s and B’s in school cannot go back there, he said, after being expelled last year.

“He’s a mature kid with a lot of faith in God,” Holmes said. “But it’s difficult. New Castle isn’t Pittsburgh. You go places and people know you. They know your name.”

Holmes did not know during the motion hearing for the civil case that Stewart’s appearance in juvenile court was set for March 25. He said in an interview afterward that it would not have changed the motion, other than his asking for the stay until that date and possibly longer, depending on how long the juvenile hearing takes.