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Dan Madry says fine for criminal trespass on Glen Summit Co. land is payback for suing company.
Dan Madry removes a photo of his son Brian Madry on Thursday from a roadside memorial on Lake Road in the Glen Summit section of Fairview Township set up in memory of the Crestwood High School student who died in a car crash on July 18.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER)
Dan Madry visits the roadside memorial dedicated to his son Brian, daily. Dan Madry would like to see a permanent memorial at the site where his 16-year-old son died in an automobile crash on July 18, 2011.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER)
FAIRVIEW TWP. – While walking his dog last month, Dan Madry thought the wind and rain would be their only company on a visit to the spot where his son was killed in a car crash.
He was wrong and it cost him.
Madry said he received a $125 citation for criminal trespass in the mail from Fairview Township police this week after a woman photographed him on private property the morning of Jan. 23. He viewed it as the latest form of harassment against him since his family named the land owner Glen Summit Co. as one of the defendants in the death of his son Brian.
“I think it’s disgusting. To a dad who lost a 16-year-old and you do this to me,” said Madry on Wednesday.
He paid the fine and hopes to recover it by challenging the citation in a hearing before a district judge.
It’s money he and his family could use.
Madry, 51, of Wright Township, has been unable to work as a truck driver since he blacked out and crashed a tractor-trailer on the Northeastern Extension of the Turnpike on the afternoon of Oct. 25. The accident was caused by stress from his son’s death, he said.
He admitted walking his dog, Eli, a golden retriever and Labrador mix on land posted with no trespassing signs while heading to his car near the memorial for his son along Lake Road. He said he and his dog had been there other times with permission since the July 18 crash on the dirt road.
The citation surprised him as much as the woman who was hiding in the bushes to take his photo. He identified her as Sandra Loeb, a Glen Summit resident.
Loeb did not respond to messages left Thursday and Friday at her home and office.
He’d been run off the narrow dirt road before and had other run-ins since filing the suit last November in Luzerne County Court.
“I think it’s a combination of his memorial and the lawsuit,” he said.
Madry had his dog off the leash during the walk and was coming from a trail around Fountain Lake. The secluded lake lies at the end of the dirt road and was the scene of an underage drinking party attended by Adam Fredmund, the 16-year-old driver of the car in which Madry’s son was a passenger.
Fredmund of Fairview Township was declared delinquent last September and ordered to live in a group home with around-the-clock supervision for admitting to charges including homicide by motor vehicle.
The Luzerne man who purchased the alcoholic beverages for the drinking party at the lake entered the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Kenneth John Rushinski, 22, must serve 12 months probation on a charge of selling or furnishing liquor to minors. If he completes the program his criminal record will be expunged.
Loeb’s name appears on the crimnal trespass citation along with that of another resident, Lisa Dean.
Dean did not respond to a phone message left at her residence Friday.
Madry said he has not seen the photos.
There might be an issue with his walks on private property, but not with the memorial due to its location along a township road.
He acknowledged it is bigger than he would like and cluttered with painted stones, wooden crosses, photos, candles, flowers and a hockey stick. His son was a standout athlete and honor student going into his senior year and the loss has been hard on Madry, his wife, Carolyn, and their two sons, Mike and Matt.
Instead of the many small pieces, Madry would like to have a permanent marker and said the mother of the driver in the crash talked about putting a bench at the site.
Madry has in mind a silver cross, approximately two feet high with his son’s name on it, something to mark the location where he said he feels his son’s spirit.
“I want a spot where I know his soul left this place,” said Madry.
The father still drives to the site to talk to his son and pray, sometimes several times a day.
But since getting the citation Madry has stuck to the road and stopped walking on the path around the lake.