A Philadelphia man has been held for court on simple assault, harassment, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment charges for an Oct 14 incident in Trainer where a woman was cut on her thigh.
Magisterial District Judge Shepard Garner dismissed charges of aggravated assault and possessing an instrument of crime with intent, however, after the victim said she did not believe Dennis Fritze meant to harm her.
The alleged victim told Assistant District Attorney Rachael Cook that she had picked up Fritze from a friend’s house that night and drove him to a store near her home. She said he was agitated but she did not know what was wrong with him. On the drive to the store, she said he punched her in the shoulder at least once.
The woman said she then drove to her home on the 1300 block of Sunset Street, where Fritze went inside while she stayed in the car. She said she did not want to be around him, and that he was acting like someone she did not know.
She said Fritze at some point came back outside and began throwing items from the porch or deck at her car. The victim said she called Fritze’s cousin, hoping she could talk him down, and handed him the phone.
The alleged victim said Fritze took the phone into the house where the conversation apparently ended.
He came back out and demanded the woman unlock her phone, then smashed it on the ground next to the car when she told him to give the phone to her.
The woman said Fritze had a pocket knife out when he opened the driver’s side door and stooped down in an apparent attempt to locate the phone. It was at that time, while she was still seated in the car, that she said he stuck her with the tip of the knife in her thigh.
“He said, ‘I told you to get the f… out of the way,’ ” the woman said. “I don’t know where I was supposed to move to, but I just said, ‘Why did you do that? Why did you do that?’ and I just stayed in the car.”
The alleged victim said she eventually went and bandaged her leg, and saw at that time how much blood she had lost because it was saturating her jeans. She was later treated by emergency medical technicians and then went to an urgent care the next day.
On cross-examination, the woman told defense counsel Caroline Brady that the knife was just a pocket knife like Fritze usually had on him.
“I don’t even know why the knife was out,” she said. “I don’t believe he intentionally, he didn’t intentionally took the knife out to hurt me with it. I don’t know why he had it out. …He wasn’t, like, coming at me with it.”
Cook also presented medical records indicating the victim had suffered a wound to her thigh, sprains to muscles and ligaments in her neck and strains on her shoulder and arm muscles.
Brady argued that based on the testimony of the alleged victim and sole witness, the aggravated assault and possession of an instrument of crime charges should be dismissed because there was no intent to harm the victim.
Cook argued that if the defendant did not mean to stab the woman, he could have said as much when she asked “Why did you do that?” but he instead said, “I told you to get the f… out of the way.”
With all inferences going to the commonwealth at this early stage of prosecution, Cook said the charges should remain.
Garner disagreed and dismissed those two charges, but did hold the rest over for Common Pleas Court and set formal arraignment for Dec. 17 at the County Courthouse in Media.
Fritze remains in custody at the county jail in Concord pending $69,000 cash bail, according to online court records.