Off-duty policeman acquitted of assault charges
An off-duty police officer was acquitted Wednesday of assault charges related to a 2005 fight outside a Uniontown bar. Kenneth E. Bittinger III felt “vindicated” by the not guilty findings on the aggravated and simple assault charges lodged against him, said his attorney, Nicholas Timperio Jr.
“The jury saw the truth,” Timperio said after the verdict was handed down by a Fayette County jury of seven men and five women.
In the year since the charges were filed in the alleged assault on Jason Mitchell, Timperio said Bittinger has felt “persecuted” in media accounts because of his size and his job. Bittinger, a former Fairchance police officer and member of the county’s drug task force, is larger than Mitchell.
Timperio also questioned if charges would have been filed were Bittinger not a police officer.
“This has dramatically affected his life,” Timperio said.
His client is considering a civil suit, Timperio said, and they will get together to talk about the prospect of that next week.
Bittinger, visibly emotional after the verdict, declined to make a statement, but said that Timperio’s comments summed up his sentiments.
Uniontown police Sgt. Fred Balsley charged Bittinger, 28, of South Union Township with pummeling Mitchell, a former classmate, outside Darby’s Pub on Morgantown Street.
Both Mitchell and Bittinger testified during the course of the trial, but their versions of what occurred around 12:30 a.m. on March 1, 2005, are like night and day.
Mitchell testified Bittinger punched and choked him after Mitchell called him a name. Bittinger testified Mitchell threw the first punch, and he “reacted” and punched back. That blow knocked Mitchell out and he fell face first into the dirt, Bittinger testified.
The two knew one another from middle school, and in his opening remarks Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek told jurors that Bittinger once picked on Mitchell.
Mitchell testified that run-in made him apprehensive when he saw Bittinger at the bar that night.
Timperio argued that Mitchell’s testimony that he was afraid of Bittinger did not fit with what happened.
He noted that Mitchell had the opportunity to leave or tell his friends that he was apprehensive.
Timperio suggested that after several drinks Mitchell may have developed “beer muscles.”
“Sometimes, you start drinking and all of a sudden you’re a tough guy,” Timperio argued, suggesting that Mitchell went outside intent upon engaging Bittinger.
Once Mitchell hit Bittinger, Timperio argued that his client was within his rights to hit back.
If, as Mitchell testified, Bittinger hit him repeatedly, “Wouldn’t his hands be all beat up?” Timperio questioned.
Krastek said in his closing remarks that the case turned on which man was more believable.
He questioned how Mitchell could receive injuries from his forehead to his chin with one punch.
The wounds to Mitchell’s face left him “unrecognizable to the friends he came to the bar with,” Krastek said.
Even if Mitchell did hit Bittinger, Krastek asked the panel to reject a claim of self-defense.
“Please don’t find that because of one word or one punch that Ken Bittinger could have done this to another man,” Krastek said.
Mitchell testified his nose was split down the middle, his eyes blackened, and he had various cuts and bruises all over his face.
Before jurors heard closing remarks and started deliberating for the day, Judge Steve P. Leskinen denied a motion for mistrial made at the end of Tuesday’s court day.