The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

Related Photos

November 20, 2008

Attacker ‘was just crazy,’ woman testifies

By Courtney Anderson

SHARON — Something “snapped” in the man a Sharon woman said sexually assaulted her Nov. 15 in her home, she said Thursday.

With bruises under her eyes, along her jaw and a cut above her right eye, the 55-year-old woman testified at a preliminary hearing for Donald M. Van Tassel, 22, of 2190 Homewood Drive, Hermitage.

The woman said she has known Van Tassel since he was a baby.

“There’s something mentally wrong with this child … He needs help, because something upstairs is not in the right room,” the woman said.

Van Tassel is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint, making terroristic threats and reckless endangerment for allegedly assaulting the woman in her apartment.

Those charges were held to court by Senior District Judge Henry Russo, Sharon.

Van Tassel arrived at the woman’s home around midnight looking for a place to sleep or a ride home, she said. The woman said she thought he was intoxicated because he “acted goofy when he came to the door.”

He fell asleep in a chair while she made some phone calls to his relatives because she said he had a curfew.

“Next thing I know, he jumps up and he was at me,” she said.

She said he pulled off her pajama bottoms and carried her to the bedroom, where he performed sex acts on her and repeatedly punched her in the face.

“He wasn’t himself. He was just crazy,” she said of that night.

During the ordeal, which police said lasted three hours, the woman said she cried and “screamed and screamed and screamed.”

“Every time I’d open my mouth, he’d punch me and tell me to shut up,” he said. “He said if I made another move, he’d kill me.”

The woman said she tried to fight.

“As fast as I kicked him back he came back at me and he’d hit me harder,” she said.

The assault stopped after the woman started bleeding from a cut to her forehead and Van Tassel tried to attend to the wound. He said “we’ll fix this” by saying that three people “jumped” her, the woman testified.

Then Van Tassel laid down on the couch and went to sleep and she ran out of the house.

“I was just so grateful when he passed out,” she said.

She said she ran several blocks to a family member’s house barefoot and without her glasses. Someone there called 911.

Police found Van Tassel sleeping at her home and arrested him without incident, police said.

He is being held at Mercer County Jail on $50,000 bond and a parole detainer.

The woman was treated at the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System for a broken nose and eye socket, a concussion and bruises. She said her eyes were swollen shut and she had to get four stitches above her right eye.

The Herald does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Text Only
Local News
  • Labor Dept.: Franchise’s workers not paid properly

    The owners of the Brookfield Subway restaurant have been paying their employees less than minimum wage, shorting them on overtime pay and violating child labor laws for two years, a federal lawsuit alleges.

    February 7, 2012

  • Insecurity: Firm loses more local clients

    Reynolds Area School District is scrambling to find people to work security at upcoming games after finding out the Pittsburgh-area security firm they were using had some guards who were convicted felons or sex offenders.
    “That was a shock, believe me,” said school board President John Lowry.

    February 7, 2012

  • School budget predictions improve

    The upshot to planning for a worst-case scenario is it makes any change an improvement.
    Such is the case with Farrell Area School District’s finances, business manager William Dungee told school board members Monday.

    February 7, 2012

  • Chief gripe: Cramped quarters

    In Sharpsville, the long arm of the law needs room to stretch out.
    Police Chief Keith Falasco told council members Monday night that his department’s current space “is at the least inadequate,” and after off-and-on talks over the years to make improvements, he said the time has come.

    February 7, 2012

  • Pets perish in house fire

    A Sharon family’s home was heavily damaged in a Saturday night fire that killed their pets.

    February 6, 2012

  • Kelly rallies GOP faithful

    Mercer County Republicans agreed it was time for a change from the current administration at their annual Lincoln Day dinner Saturday night at Hempfield Station One Banquet Center, and Congressman Mike Kelly called not only for change but for more accountability.

    February 6, 2012

  • Mother leads charge for son’s autism therapy


    Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget cuts are preventing children with autism from getting the help they need.

    February 5, 2012

  • Victim describes armed robbery at her home

    Charges were held to court Friday against a Sharon teen charged as an adult in an October armed robbery.

    February 4, 2012

  • Overheated motor starts small fire at gas well

    Jamestown volunteer firefighters put out an accidental natural gas well equipment fire Friday morning in Greene Township that started when a pump motor overheated.

    February 4, 2012

  • Burglary was man’s solution to money woes

    The end of 2010 was “a crazy time in my life,” Grant T. Lockhart told a judge Thursday.

    February 4, 2012