Testimony heard in Sycamore woman’s death after 911 dispatcher refused to send help
The most serious charges were dismissed against three Greene County emergency officials accused of withholding documents from police investigating why a 911 operator refused to send help to a Sycamore woman suffering medical problems the day before she died.
Senior District Judge Robert Redlinger dismissed a felony conspiracy charge and two other misdemeanor counts against Gregory Leathers, Robert “Jeff” Rhodes and Richard Policz during their preliminary hearing Thursday, although he ordered them to stand trial on misdemeanor charges of tampering with public records and obstruction of justice.
The three county emergency management officials were charged this July and accused of impeding the investigation into the death of 54-year-old Diania Kronk in 2020 over why emergency dispatcher Leon Price refused to send an ambulance when the woman’s two adult children called 911 begging for help for their mother. When then-Greene Regional police Chief Zachary Sams began investigating the situation, he alleged that he ran into roadblocks with Leathers, Rhodes and Policz when he filed a search warrant a week after the woman’s death on July 2, 2020, looking for audio recordings of the 911 call and records explaining training and standard operating procedures at the dispatch center.
Sams, who is now the chief detective for the Greene County District Attorney’s office, testified during the preliminary hearing that he was rebuffed when he made initial contact with the trio July 7, 2020, at the 911 operations center, although all agreed for him to return the following day to get the information he sought. But when he came back the next day, the documents were still not available and he got the sense that the supervisors were not being forthcoming with information. He filed a second search warrant that night and went back to get the documents, which he said were begrudgingly provided to him on a disk.
Price was charged this June with involuntary manslaughter and other counts related to Kronk’s death. But shortly after those charges were filed, Sams said he was contacted by Denise Desmet, a former 911 operator now acting as a whistleblower, who claimed there were additional documents he did not receive. When Sams returned to the operations center with a third search warrant this July, he asked for a binder and book that contained additional directives, including a 2017 memo advising emergency dispatchers that they should always call Greene Regional police when there are also requests for an ambulance, which wasn’t done in Kronk’s case.
That document appeared to be the foundation for filing charges against the three men. Leathers was the county’s emergency management coordinator at the time and now serves as Waynesburg Borough’s mayor; Rhodes was and remains the 911 coordinator; and Policz was the 911 operations and training coordinator, but now serves as emergency management director.
Attorneys for the three defendants argued that their clients complied with the search warrants and handed over exactly what Sams was asking for, or they complied with additional requests if some documents weren’t included in the initial searches.
“It was not hidden, it was not destroyed, it was not altered,” said attorney Tina Miller, who represented Policz. “I’m perplexed by why search warrants were served in the first place when it’s standard for police departments to ask for (911) tapes. … If there had just been communication, but (Sams) never interviewed anyone.”
Harry Cancelmi, who represented Rhodes, said there was no proof the men intended to conceal information from Sams, while Dave Pollock, the attorney for Leathers, said the supervisors made a “good faith effort” responding to the search warrants.
District Attorney David Russo said the multiple search warrants that were needed to retrieve information about policies, standard operating procedures and directives indicated the supervisors weren’t forthcoming with the information.
“A second warrant had to be issued for documents, and they still didn’t get them all,” Russo said.
Redlinger immediately dismissed the three conspiracy charges, one of which was a felony, but agreed to order the men to stand trial on two misdemeanor counts of tampering and the one charge of obstruction. The three men are free on unsecured bond, and Policz had to leave the hearing early because he was needed to help coordinate a search and rescue operation elsewhere in the county.
All three Greene County commissioners attended the marathon preliminary hearing, which lasted more than six hours and mainly focused mostly on the actions by emergency officials during the investigation. But it also included heart-wrenching testimony from Kronk’s two adult children who called 911 begging for help.
Robert Kronk testified that his mother was experiencing mental health issues and was incoherent, making strange noises and turning yellow while lying in bed inside her Browns Creek home near Sycamore around noon July 1, 2020. He messaged his sister, Kelly Titchenell, who then called 911 and reported to Price that their mother was seriously ill.
“Our mom was laying here dying,” Kronk recalled telling Titchenell. “We need 911.”
Titchenell, who drove from her home in Mather to her mother’s house near Sycamore after hearing from her brother about the situation, testified that she told 911 “my mom was gonna die” and that they needed an ambulance. According to court documents, Price declined to send an ambulance because he could not get assurances that Kronk would go willingly with paramedics. Robert Kronk said he couldn’t call 911 himself because of the poor cell service in that area, so he waited with his mother for a few more hours, but help never arrived.
“Nobody. Not a soul,” he testified.
He went back to his mobile home on the property and fell asleep, but went back to his mother’s house around 11 a.m. July 2. He went into her bedroom and found her dead, which investigators said was caused by internal bleeding.
“Mom, wake up,” Kronk recalled telling his mother when he went into her room. “She never woke up again. I started screaming and crying. I called my sister (and told her) ‘Mom’s dead!'”
They contacted 911 again, and this time Greene Regional police, paramedics and the county coroner arrived. Kronk told Greene Regional police Officer Spencer Griffith that it was “about time” someone showed up, prompting Griffith to ask what he meant.
“We called yesterday, and no one showed up,” Kronk said.
Griffith testified during Thursday’s hearing he was surprised to hear that since 911 is directed to contact police every time someone in their coverage area, which includes Morris, Perry and Wayne townships, calls for some sort of emergency regardless of the nature. In fact, the Greene Regional Police Department’s office in Nineveh is barely more than a half-mile from Kronk’s house where she died. Griffith notified Sams about the situation, and the department opened an investigation into the matter.
It’s not clear why Price did not send help, but Desmet testified that it wasn’t his choice to make, according to their training.
“Basically, he knew better. You’re a dispatcher, nothing else,” Desmet said about the reasoning Price allegedly gave on the phone call with Titchenell about why he couldn’t send an ambulance. “You take that call and send EMS, because time is of the essence.”
Price, 50, of Waynesburg, is facing misdemeanor charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, obstruction of justice and two counts of official oppression. He is free on $15,000 unsecured bond and is scheduled to go before Redlinger for his preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Nov. 22.