Dauphin County man given state prison term for assault on deputies
A Dauphin County resident, formerly of Lehighton, was sentenced to a state prison term on Friday in Carbon County court for assaulting two sheriff deputies as they attempted to serve an arrest warrant on him.
Cameron L. Mooney, 31, was sentenced by Judge Steven R. Serfass to serve a total of 12 to 36 months in a state correctional institution. He was sentenced to serve 10 to 24 months on the assault count and two to 12 months on a charge of resisting arrest with the terms running consecutively.
He was charged for an incident that occurred on Aug. 24, 2017.
Two Carbon County sheriff deputies, Christopher Lekka and Dan McLean, went to a residence to serve a warrant on Mooney. The arrest report indicated Mooney resisted while being taken into custody, assaulted the two deputies and tried to escape.
Mooney went on trial earlier this year with the jury reaching a split verdict. The jury found him not guilty of the most serious charge, aggravated assault, and a count of escape.
On Friday, defense attorney Matthew J. Mottola, of the public defender’s office, said his client went to trial because he believed he did not commit aggravated assault. He said Mooney was not going to challenge the verdict.
Mooney said he was sorry for what happened and added, “I had no intention to harm them that day.”
Assistant District Attorney Brian Gazo, who prosecuted the case, took exception to Mooney’s saying he didn’t mean to injure anyone.
Gazo said Mooney fought with the two deputies “tooth and nail.” He said the deputies were only doing their duty in attempting to serve a lawful warrant.
He also noted that Mooney has a “bit of history” with an assault in Dauphin County on his record.
Lekka, who is now a full-time officer in Franklin Township, told Serfass he was injured and missed work. He said Mooney never showed any remorse for what happened until his sentencing date. He asked Serfass to impose a state prison term.
Serfass said he was familiar with the case since it was tried before him. He said he took into consideration all the “circumstances of the crime, its seriousness and its impact on the victims.”
In addition to the prison term Serfass also ordered Mooney to get a drug and alcohol evaluation, attend and successfully complete an anger-management counseling class, when released on parole render a total of 200 hours of community service and pay court costs of about $1,000.
He was given credit for 129 days spent in prison to date on the charges.
