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Charges against James Boothby, former director of Potter County Mental Health Mental Retardation Services, dismissed on Monday
By GEORGE PETRISEK
Era Correspondent
curmudgeon@zitomedia.net
SHINGLEHOUSE — The prosecution did not make its case, Magisterial District Judge Barbara Easton said Monday as she dismissed all charges against James Boothby, former director of Potter County Mental Health Mental Retardation Services.
Boothby, who had been suspended with pay in August and then had resigned his position, had been charged with felony counts of risking a catastrophe and making terroristic threats after a device resembling a pipe bomb was found in his office on Sept. 5.
The Potter County Human Services Office building in Roulette was evacuated, as were some surrounding residences, and bomb squads from Erie and Harrisburg were called to the scene.
The device, two pieces of pipe about 24 inches long attached to a battery with wires and tape, turned out to be harmless.
Boothby, 55, testified that he had made the simulated bomb as part of his duties on the Safety Committee about four years ago, when it was used in a drill. It had sat on a file cabinet in his office ever since, he said.
While several workers whose desks were near Boothby’s and other workers who were often in the area testified that they had never seen the device there, Human Services Administrator James Kochlan testified that “Jim’s office was chaotic,” with papers, books and other materials strewn about over filing cabinets and all other surfaces.
Melissa Lee, whose desk was in sight of the filing cabinet where the device was found, told the court she had not seen the pipes there at any time in the past four years. She also noted that she did not notice it the morning that it was found by another co-worker, Mental Health caseworker Rick Kunselman, who was looking around Boothby’s work station because Boothby was supposed to come in that day to pick up his personal belongings and return his laptop and cell phone.
While Kunselman also said he had never seen the device before, under questioning by defense attorney Walter Stenhach, he admitted that he’d “never really looked” at the mess on the cabinets and agreed when Stenhach said “It’s safe to say you were more observant that day?” (Because Boothby was supposed to come in and clean out his belongings).
Kunselman said that he thought the bomb was “a prop” and that he picked it up and handed it to Lee, then decided to report it to “some management.”
That turned out to be Kochlan, who called Coudersport-based state police.
By the time Boothby arrived, the building had been evacuated and he was taken into custody and handcuffed by State Police.
The “bomb” was taken to a nearby ballfield, where bomb squads fired it with a small charge that would have caused any explosives in the device to explode.
District Attorney Dawn Fink argued that Boothby must somehow have entered the building at some time and put the device there because he was disgruntled over his suspension, which came because of an unrelated criminal charge of cruelty to animals.
Boothby testified that his retirement after the suspension was on “amicable” terms and that he was satisfied in that he received all accumulated sick pay and other benefits that he was entitled to.
In his questioning, Stenhach brought out that after Boothby was suspended on Aug. 28, the access code to the building was changed, and that even if Boothby had obtained the new general access code, he could not have obtained a second code, known only to four people, which would allow access after 6 p.m. when the building was empty.
None of the witnesses who testified said that they had ever seen Boothby in the building after his suspension or had heard of anyone who had.
When Stenhach asked lead state police investigator trooper Glenn Drake if he had found anyone who had seen Boothby there at any time since his suspension, Drake said that he had been called to Roulette on his day off and had left two days later for a two-week training session.
Drake answered that other officers had interviewed Human Services workers, and “I haven’t read half of the interviews.”
Troopers also testified that they had found duct tape and electrical tape similar to what was used on the bomb at Boothby’s residence and at the American Legion, where he is post commander, but were unable to say whether it was the actual tape that had been used.
Pieces of pipe similar to the ones on the bomb were also found at the American Legion, but no direct connection was made. Boothby had told troopers he made the training device at the Legion.
Drake scoffed at the idea that anyone would make a realistic looking bomb for training.
But all that was not really to the point, as Stenhach made clear in his summation: “Judge, he wasn’t there … there is no evidence at all that he was ever there … and no evidence that it (the bomb) wasn’t there all the time.”
He also noted that there had been no bomb threat phoned in and that the “negative evidence” that no one had ever seen him back at the building after his suspension could not be ignored.
“The access codes were changed to keep him out and that’s what they did — he never had access to the second code.”
Easton’s decision came quickly; without leaving the courtroom she ruled there was not probable cause and dismissed all charges.
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