Saint Clair Police Chief William Dempsey testified in District Court Tuesday that his brother constantly harassed him, both in calls and in text messages, for weeks regarding the care of their parents.
Brad Dempsey, 44, of Saint Clair, is charged in two separate cases.
William Dempsey has been on Heart and Lung Act leave from his job at Saint Clair’s Police Chief since March 24.
On May 8, the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office filed a harassment charge against Brad Dempsey. According to court documents, Saint Clair Police were contacted by Chief Dempsey on April 2 regarding alleged ongoing harassment by his brother.
The Chief said he sent a return text to his brother on March 20 that read, “Stop contacting me.”
Brad Dempsey ignored that and placed numerous calls to his brother. In one, he repeatedly called his brother a “pu##y”.
During a preliminary hearing on Tuesday before District Magistrate Judge David Plachko, Chief Dempsey took the stand and testified that the harassment started when he visited his parents’ home in the borough in mid-March. He said he hadn’t been there in about 10-15 years and that his parents and their home were in bad condition.
Brad was staying there and supposed to be caring for their parents.
After his visit is when the alleged harassment started, Chief Dempsey said. He said his brother wanted money.
“Brad called and wanted help getting the house cleaned and fixed,” the Chief said, adding that his brother wanted money “so he could live comfortably with my parents.”
One of the first calls he got from his brother was a threat saying, “Don’t ever (bleeping) come here again! I’m in charge of this (bleeping) house now!”
Chief Dempsey said he contacted police regarding the harassment and also arranged a visit from a social worker. That apparently set off his brother and prompted the alleged string of harassing calls and texts, the Chief testified.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Dempsey played a voicemail in which his brother called him a “pu##y”.
“I was trying to provide care for my parents. I’m trying to be a caregiver,” the Chief said, adding that his father weighed just 108 pounds at the time of his visit and accused his brother of “blocking people” from coming in their parents’ home to help.
In follow-up calls and texts, Chief Dempsey said his brother called him “fat” and said his child is gay, he testified.
“(Brad) doesn’t have anything to lose, obviously,” the Chief testified. “He doesn’t have anything in life.”
Plachko held off deciding if that case would proceed to Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas until he heard the second complaint against Brad Dempsey.
In that hearing, held immediately after the first, charges of harassment and terroristic threats were filed against Brad Dempsey on May 19.
During his testimony on those charges, Chief Dempsey said he requested police in Saint Clair conduct a welfare check on his parents on May 15 after he received word that friends and family members hadn’t seen or heard from them in more than a week.
Later that day, after police conducted that welfare check, Chief Dempsey got a phone call from his father but the call dropped. He said he called back and his brother answered his father’s phone.
On that call, Brad Dempsey allegedly made several threatening statements to him and his family.
He testified that his brother said, “This (bleep’s) gonna stop. I’d like to smash your head with a baseball bat!”
Chief Dempsey said his brother called his wife a slut and that his son was gay.
“I kept saying, ‘Put dad on the phone’,” the Chief testified.
His father got on the phone but in the background, the Chief said he could hear things being smashed. He said he also heard his brother yelling in the background, “I’m going to kill this pu##y!”
During more testimony, the Chief said he felt threatened for his immediate family’s safety and he got a Protection From Abuse order out of Carbon County, where he lives.
In court documents filed in this case, Brad Dempsey answered another call to his father’s phone from Chief Dempsey and reportedly said, “I’m coming to your house and I’ll kill your whole (bleeping) family and your crackhead wife.”
In another call after that previous call was stopped abruptly, Brad Dempsey then allegedly makes another threat to his brother by saying, “I’m coming to your house with a baseball bat. You’re a fat pu##y. I’m coming!”
Chief Dempsey said he believed the threats against him and his family were real enough that he cancelled a vacation while he was en route to his destination.
“I’m scared for him to come to my house,” Chief Dempsey testified. “If I have to act, I’ll feel terrible.”
On cross-examination by Public Defender Nick Watt, who is representing Brad Dempsey, asked his client’s brother if he at any point believed he goaded him into making these threats or any of the name-calling.
On the stand, Chief Dempsey said he told his brother at one point, “You’re the homo,” presumably in reference to slurs his brother used against him.
Brad Dempsey has been in Schuylkill County Prison since May 19. He’s being held on 10% of $25,000 bail.
On Tuesday, after hearing testimony in both cases, Plachko held all charges against him over for Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas.
Before adjourning court on Tuesday, Plachko said, “This case will bother me for a long time.”
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