Businessman faces trial on assault charges
BULLSKIN TWP. – A township businessman accused of assaulting a customer when he questioned an invoice amount will have the charges heard in court. “My husband has been in business for 30 years, he would not do something like that,” said Mary K. Emerick as she departed the courtroom on Tuesday.
Her husband, George C. Emerick, 55, is accused of attacking Dennis S. Cavanaugh on Nov. 4 when Cavanaugh approached him about a discrepancy in the amount he was charged for transferring a title for a motor home.
In addition to simple assault, George C. Emerick is also charged with harassment and criminal mischief stemming from the Nov. 4 incident that allegedly took place at George’s Trading Post.
Cavanaugh testified that he was grabbed by the arm, thrown to the ground and kicked by George C. Emerick after approaching him about the invoice that indicated a cost of $553 was due to the business, but instead he was charged $648.
“He said he was going to kill me,” Cavanaugh told state police Trooper Matthew Hartman during the hearing.
Cavanaugh said he had telephoned the business after discovering what he thought was “an honest mistake,” but was advised he would have to speak to George C. Emerick about the discrepancy.
After acquiring the canceled check he went to the Bullskin Township car lot to discuss the matter with the owner, but was verbally and physically abused by him, said Cavanaugh.
“Were you belligerent at all?” asked attorney Brian Teslovich, legal counsel for the Emerick family during cross-examination.
“I wasn’t upset at all,” responded Cavanaugh. “I thought he had made an honest mistake.”
Cavanaugh said after the incident he returned to his home and contacted the Uniontown State Police barracks and then went to the hospital where he was treated for injuries to his arm and back that he had received during the altercation.
Hartman testified that after interviewing Cavanaugh and being shown the injuries, he went to the car lot where George C. Emerick told him that he had not attacked Cavanaugh and did not know how the injuries had been incurred.
George C. Emerick testified that he tried to explain to an angry Cavanaugh that the larger amount included costs due to his business while the lesser figure was the amount turned over to the state.
“As soon as he came in he was ranting and raving,” George C. Emerick told Teslovich. “After I re-added the figures, he grabbed the paperwork off the desk and threatened all of us and then left.”
He said he saw Cavanaugh slip and fall as he proceeded to his vehicle.
Employee Harold Hannah said he, too, saw Cavanaugh fall to the ground as he went to his car.
During closing arguments, Hartman pointed to photographs depicting the injuries to Cavanaugh and the evidence of a torn jacket that he said substantiated Cavanaugh’s account of the incident.
While Breakiron ruled the charges against Emerick would be bound over to court, he found Cavanaugh guilty of a summary harassment charge that had been filed against him by George C. Emerick.
Cavanaugh was fined $300 in connection with the incident.