News of a plea deal reached in the case of the 2023 death of Schuylkill County business owner Mark Boyle has resulted in swift and harsh criticism of the District Attorney’s Office.
Michael Albert, of White Haven, agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Boyle in August 2023. Albert ran over Boyle with a dump truck at Boyle’s business location in West Penn Township during a dispute over a repair bill on that vehicle.
Albert was facing a third-degree murder charge in addition to charges of aggravated assault, and vehicular homicide in the case. Schuylkill County District Attorney Mike O’Pake said the Commonwealth was ready to take it to trial in September.
However, last week, a plea agreement was reached with Albert in which he entered a guilty plea on involuntary manslaughter and theft of services. He was sentenced to a maximum of 23 months in prison and has already served 6 days more than a year in Schuylkill County Prison.
O’Pake was not immediately available for comment as the article on the plea deal was published to Coal Region Canary.
In comments to The Canary on Friday evening, O’Pake said the plea deal was reached at the insistence of the victim’s family.
Here is O’Pake’s full comment to The Canary on Friday evening regarding the plea agreement with Albert:
“The genesis of this plea agreement was at the urging of the victim’s family.
“The District Attorney’s Office always includes victims in resolution of cases and considers their wishes in how we resolve cases.
“The victim’s family in this case was adamant they wanted a non-trial resolution. In fact, the victim’s family’s civil attorney and estate attorney contacted my office and initially proposed a resolution which did not encompass Mr. Albert taking responsibility for the death of Mr. Boyle.
“I summarily dismissed that proposal and we considered alternatives. I was adamant it had to include Mr. Albert taking responsibility for the death of Mr. Boyle.
“We resolved it with a plea to involuntary manslaughter.”
The Boyle family’s estate lawyer, Gretchen Sterns, says in a statement to The Canary:
“The Boyle family is extremely grateful for the diligent efforts of the Schuylkill County DA’s Office in prosecuting this case and they look forward to putting this difficult matter behind them.
“Closure is important to Ms. Boyle and her children and Mr. Albert’s acceptance of responsibility for this tragic incident provides the closure the family needs.”
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Forced into plea bargain
June 24, 2025 at 5:42 pm
O’Pake is a ####ing joke. All he wants to do is get people into the system by having officers throw excessive charges at people leading to plea bargains. No foul no harm to these officers for doing so.
What needs to happen is when charges get tossed out because of their overreach there should be some sort of a pay deduction putting the burden on these crooks that they tried to put onto others. Then the playing field isn’t as corrupt as it is now.