By James Halpin
The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The son of a local fire chief accused of arson testified Friday he was badgered into admitting to a crime he didn’t commit and confessed only out of fear.
Richard Thomas Hart, 19, of Wilkes-Barre Township, is charged with arson, reckless burning and burglary. Prosecutors say he confessed to setting a fire that destroyed a vacant Casey Avenue residence Dec. 21.
But Hart, a volunteer firefighter, said he only copped to the crime because he was subjected to repeated questioning over the matter and was young and afraid.
“He broke,” defense attorney John Pike said in his closings late Friday morning. “He was an 18-year-old high school dropout in a room with lions.”
Admissions, denials at issue
Hart, taking the stand in his own defense, testified he responded to the scene with his father, Wilkes-Barre Township Fire Chief Richard Hart, after receiving a page alerting him to the fire around 3:13 a.m. Hart and about 30 firefighters from four other departments battled the blaze for about nine hours, he said.
Hart later learned he was a suspect. He said he twice denied setting the fire, but admitted to the crime in a third interview with police, saying he started the blaze after following a lost family cat into the residence and dropping a cigar onto spilled gasoline.
Hart made up the story because he was nervous and “never had to deal with anything like this before,” he said.
“I tell them a story, they leave me alone,” Hart said.
But in a fourth interview with police, Hart retracted his confession and claimed a man he saw standing in a seldom-traveled township roadway a few days before the fire was responsible. Hart claimed he saw the man at the scene the night of the fire and was threatened at gun-point to get away, according to testimony.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Hogans argued in his closing it was Hart who set the blaze, not a mysterious stranger or someone recruited in a setup attempt by former township fire chief John Yuknavich — a rival of Hart’s father — as Hart’s uncle suggested during his testimony this week.
Yuknavich and the elder Hart have leveled harassment claims against one other over an alleged shouting match last summer. The former fire chief, who served six months in prison last year for stealing funds from the fire department, appeared at the courthouse Friday but did not testify.
Hart again cites fear
Hart acknowledged during cross-examination he lied to police but maintained it was because he was afraid and wanted them to leave him alone.
“You told two police officers you intentionally started a fire because you wanted them to leave you alone?” Hogans asked. “If you didn’t do it, why were you scared?”
Pressed as to why he didn’t call police about the suspicious man in the neighborhood or mention him in interviews for nearly a month, Hart again cited being afraid. When Hart did bring up the stranger, investigators didn’t believe him, he said.
“They basically told me I was a piece of s–––,” Hart said.
Hogans countered by noting it wouldn’t be unreasonable for investigators to be hesitant to believe Hart because he had already admitted to setting the blaze.
‘That’s on him’
Earlier Friday, friend Cataldo Annunziata testified he was with Hart at Hart’s residence except for an approximately five-minute period in which Hart “stepped outside.” When he returned, Hart said he took a walk to a nearby McDonald’s to see if it was open. Hart didn’t appear to have been around a fire, Annunziata said.
The home destroyed by the fire is located between Hart’s home and the McDonald’s, Annunziata said.
Hogans, noting Annunziata consented to an interview with police, pressed Annunziata about a phone call he made to Hart before being questioned. Hogans asked why Annunziata couldn’t call him afterward and suggested the call was an attempt to get their stories straight.
“If he did something like this, that’s on him,” Annunziata said. “That’s his wrong. I’m not going to protect him if he did something like this.”
The jury is expected to begin deliberations this afternoon.
Copyright 2016 The Citizens’ Voice