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No charges will be filed against Prothonotary Sally Vaughn

Published: November 17, 2009

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BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN

TOWANDA - No charges will be filed against Bradford County Prothonotary Sally Vaughn, who was accused by an Ulster man of saying she wanted to harm other workers in the Bradford County Courthouse, the Bradford County district attorney said on Monday.

When interviewed by an investigator from the Bradford County District Attorney's Office over the weekend, Vaughn denied that she had made such a statement, Bradford County District Attorney Daniel Barrett said on Monday.

Security at the courthouse was increased on the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 10, after Dale Lafy of Ulster told police that day that Vaughn had said she wanted to harm other workers in the courthouse.

The heightened security measures were lifted by the time the courthouse opened for business two days later.

There is no evidence that Vaughn ever took any steps to harm anyone in the courthouse, the district attorney said on Monday.

"We have no information that any step was made to carry out any alleged threat," Barrett said.

"The statements from the two individuals (Lafy and Vaughn) do not match, and given those conflicts, among other reasons, nothing warrants any sort of filing of charges," Barrett said.

Asked what the other reasons were for the decision not to file charges against Vaughn, Barrett replied: "There would be an issue of whether the things that Mr. Lafy described (Vaughn as saying) would in and of themselves rise to the level (of a crime)."

"If the statements were made, some of the statements could be characterized as venting," Barrett explained.

The decision not to file charges against Vaughn "was not based on whether there was sufficient evidence to convict, but on whether there was sufficient evidence to conclude that a crime had been committed," Barrett said.

"At this point, there are no (additional) areas for inquiry, and this investigation has been concluded," he said.

Lafy had been dating Vaughn for a few months, the district attorney had said last week.

The statements made by Lafy "came after or during the ending of his relationship with Vaughn," the district attorney said on Monday.

At this time, the District Attorney's Office has no plans for taking any action against Lafy for making the statements to police, the district attorney said.

The Towanda Police Department, which had initially investigated the case, turned the case over to the District Attorney's Office last Thursday, Barrett said.

When reached on Monday, Vaughn declined comment, saying she had been advised by her attorney, Frank Niemiec of Towanda, not to speak to anyone about the matter.

Vaughn referred questions to Niemiec, who declined to comment, saying that he needed to preserve the confidentiality between himself and his client. He said he would need a written waiver from his client to speak to a reporter.

Vaughn could not be reached later on Monday.

Barrett on Monday again declined to provide specific details about what Lafy claimed that Vaughn had said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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8 posted comments

Admin, Bradford County as a whoe has always been twisted and backwards. Not just the criminal justice system. In this case, a complaint was filed. When ever a complaint is filed with the police, it has to be investigated. The complaint was investigated. A determination was made that the statements in and of them selves did not rise to the level of a criminal offense. That said, the comments about the criminal justice system - I do have a question perhaps the Review can find out information on. Why is it that Bradford County is the ONLY county in PA that requires parents to pay 100% of the costs of placement, even though TANF Grant Funds are also applied for each juvenile that is placed? Why is it that when the Bradford County Probation Department changed drug testing companies a few years back for a cheaper price for the county, the cost of a drug test did not go down for the defendant's having to take the test? How is it, even after Commonwealth v. Dobbins, Steve Evans and the Bradford County Sherrif's Dept still conducts criminal investigations? These are even bigger issues that are occuring in this county or have occurred in this county, then if one person reportedly making a vailed threat. Yet nothing is being said or done about them. Maybe PA Attorney General Corbett should next look at the issues that are going on in Bradford County.
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Enough,  11/18/09 5:28
Retired PO, That may be, but the fact of the matter is that Bradford County's judicial system has been twisted and backwards for years and everyone knows it!
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Admin,  11/18/09 9:02
this whole county's so-called "justice system" needs to be over-hauled. do people REALLY care if "he said/she said" cases??? no, i dont think they do. just like reality tv. no one cares.
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JS,  11/18/09 7:30
Seems to me that some people like to jump to conclusions about things, depending on their feelings on the subject. Knowing a thing or two about the criminal justice system, these kind of cases are often a swearing match between opposing parties. It can make it hard to sort out. And the DA is bound by rules of evidence and procedure. If you have no impartial confirmation or supportive evidence of the act, it makes it difficult to bring to trial.

And by evidence I mean facts about that specific incident, not rumor, not opinion or statements like "Well everybody knows..." or "well so and so said...". The state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, a very high burden. And in cases where you have domestic partner accusing another there may be a certain emotional vindictiveness on the part of one or both parties. Seen it more times than I care to remember.

Of course the DA has to try and sort it out to see if sufficient evidence exists to file charges and take it to trial. And in this case, involving political figures or situations, it is a no win situation. Certain parties will not be happy, regardless of the fact that the case may have been marginal to begin with.

Seems to me Mr. Barrett had his people look into it and made a judgement call as to whether or not the allegations met a legal burden of proof. Having worked many of these kind of cases, mostly with common folk as opposed to politicians, I am not surprised that there wasn't enough found to proceed.

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RetiredPO,  11/17/09 10:50
Who you are, or Who you know.
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Ben Dare,  11/17/09 8:39
Did any body think for one second that Sally was going to be charged with anything?Just like judge Smith,if you work in the court house certain laws and rules do not apply.I think this Bradford County court house needs a cleaning from top to bottom.
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Crowknees 2,  11/17/09 8:07
if my boyfriend ever got really mad at me he could probably come up with a bunch of dumb stuff that i've said over the years. so let it go if she didn't work at the court house it wouldn't even matter.
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happy cathy,  11/17/09 7:57
where is da barett ? when judge jeff smith threatens the owners of lisas little phily . we never heard from him yet. the threts were made by the browns and jeff smith at the brennans and thier family . the state police should still have the records don,t you think it,s time mr barett
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the brennans owners of llp,  11/17/09 6:55

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