A Schuylkill County woman was acquitted of most charges against her Monday in a case in which she was accused of intentionally defecating inside and outside a District Court building in Frackville last year.
It took a jury of six men and six women just 25 minutes to find Shirl Moody, 61, of McAdoo, not guilty on charges of institutional vandalism and criminal mischief. Schuylkill County Common Pleas Judge William Burke additionally found Moody not guilty of scattering rubbish but did find her guilty of disorderly conduct.
Moody Not Guilty in District Court Pooping Case
After not arriving to Schuylkill County Courthouse on time for the start of the trial and proceedings beginning without her, or in absentia, Moody did turn up in time to testify in her own defense.
On the stand, Moody said she was headed to the District Court office of Magistrate Judge Edward Tarantelli to pay on a fine on Aug. 20 last year. An unnamed man was driving her there.
Prior to their arrival, Moody said they stopped at a pizza shop and by the time they got to the court building in Frackville, she really had to go.
“My stomach started bubbling on me,” she told jurors.
Unfortunately for her, the man who drove her that day – whom she said was hard of hearing – ran into the court building to also use the public restroom.
“I couldn’t hold it no more,” Moody said. “I didn’t want it to go on myself. It was coming down on me.”
So, Moody said she went to the side of the District Court building and relieved herself on the sidewalk.
Moody then went inside as the man who allegedly drove her there was exiting the building. Prior to using the indoor facilities, Moody stopped at the service window inside the court building and staff told her they’d be with her in a minute.
She then went into the bathroom and told jurors she tried to clean herself and the bathroom as best she could.
“Large pile of excrement”
Testimony prior to her taking the stand from staff at the District Court office and Tarantelli, himself attempted to give jurors a different perspective of the events.
It wasn’t until after Moody had done her business – that is, pay on her fine – at the court, that staff at the office realized what had happened. However, testimony indicated there was a distinct, strong odor of human feces when Moody entered the office.
One staff worker even testified that Moody had handed her cash that was “brown” and she needed to extensively wash her hands after touching it.
After Moody had left, Tarantelli said he came out to the lobby to open the door to air the place out when he found “one piece” of poop. He said he thought it was “dog dirt” and that he was “going to clean it up and move on.”
But after opening the door and looking for a place to hook up a hose to wash off any remnants, he found a “large pile of excrement” on the side of the building. It was at that point that he phoned police.
Further investigation revealed that feces was found in what was described as not normal amounts for a public restroom, including on the wall and the garbage can lid. There was even a fecal handprint on the wall outside the bathroom.
Commonwealth Exhibit No. 3 was a photo of a No. 2
It was the Commonwealth’s contention that Moody deserved criminal charges mostly because she did nothing to notify staff at the court building of her actions, that she showed no remorse for her actions that day.
During cross-examination by Schuylkill County Assistant District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon, Moody was shown a photo of the “large pile of excrement” that was left outside the court building. That photo was labeled Commonwealth Exhibit No. 3 and at times, Byrnes-Noon basically referred to the fecal matter by the exhibit label.
In her questioning, Byrnes-Noon hammered on Moody for her actions and inaction that day. She accused Moody of doing nothing to clean herself after the incident outside.
Byrnes-Noon even questioned why Moody – if she did indeed have an accident outside – went to the side of the building and didn’t just open her car door and do the business there.
“I thought I could make it inside,” Moody said. “When I made it to the door, that’s when it came down.”
Byrnes-Noon said Moody put everyone inside the court building at risk of health complications by exposing them to her excrement.
“You made a decision to walk into his office,” she said, standing just a few feet from Moody on the witness stand while holding that photo of Commonwealth’s Exhibit No. 3 in front of her.
Moody said she has difficulty controlling her bowels, especially after eating certain foods.
“I had to get to the bathroom because I wasn’t finished,” Moody said.
Byrnes-Noon wondered why, if she had all these health problems that she described to the jury, she wasn’t wearing a diaper or even a pair of underwear when she went to court that day.
“That was for a reason,” Moody said of her lack of underwear.
The prosecutor also peppered Moody about the fact she never called to take responsibility for her out-of-control bowels that day. Instead, she called the District Court office after she left to ask a question about a landlord-tenant issue because she was looking to get her roommate evicted.
On re-direct, Moody’s attorney, public defender Kent Watkins asked his client why she didn’t call about her accident.
“I was very embarrassed and very remorseful,” Moody said.
No Evidence, Defense Lawyer Says: Second Pooper Possible … “What did he do in there?”
During her closing argument, Byrnes-Noon said if Moody had just called to say she was sorry and let staff at the court know what had happened and offered to pay to clean it up, “none of us would be here today.”
She said Moody’s actions showed she was careless, hazardous, and acted with “total recklessness” that day.
“It’s careless, hazardous, intentional, and it’s a crime,” she argued to jurors. “Everybody has an accident but we try to contain it. She put people at risk by walking into that office.”
Watkins argued, successfully, to jurors that the Commonwealth hadn’t met its burden of proof on any of the charges it was bringing against Moody. He said no analysis was done to even show that the fecal matter was Moody’s, especially inside the bathroom and on the money.
He argued that no one tried to find out if the man who’d used the bathroom prior to Moody could be responsible for the mess.
“What did he do in there,” Watkins asked.
Watkins also questioned why the prosecution introduced evidence that showed fecal matter present on a cloth chair in the court lobby but never proved that Moody sat in that chair.
Moody was ordered to pay a $100 fine (plus court costs) on the disorderly conduct conviction.
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