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By JERRY LYNOTT; Times Leader Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 12, 1997 Page: 2A
DALLAS TWP. — The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office will consider
refiling the child abuse charges dismissed Tuesday — for lack of evidence —
against Bonnie Goble.
District Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said he asked Harveys Lake
Police Chief Jeffrey S. Butler to meet today with an assistant district
attorney and county detective.
Butler had not asked for assistance from the office in either the
investigation or prosecution of Goble, who was arrested last month for
allegedly neglecting her 16-year-old daughter, Amanda, Olszewski said.
Butler could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The police chief presented four witnesses at Goble’s preliminary hearing
Tuesday before District Justice James Tupper in Dallas Township. But Butler
did not include Amanda Goble on the list.
In an affidavit Butler filed to support the charges against Bonnie Goble,
51, the police chief alleged the Goble house lacked running water, had a leaky
roof and used a kerosene heater for heating and cooking.
Goble, according to the affidavit, often left her daughter home alone and
sometimes locked her out of the house at Lakeview Terrace.
A neighbor of the Gobles said Amanda Goble, a junior at Lake-Lehman High
School, would melt snow over the kerosene heater to get water for bathing.
Nanda Palissery, Bonnie Goble’s attorney, argued the evidence did not
support the charges of reckless endangerment of another person and endangering
the welfare of children.
“They put on their evidence. They did what they could; it just wasn’t
enough,” Palissery said.
The attorney said he did not know whether Bonnie Goble would return to her
house. He also refused to comment on the condition and whereabouts of Goble’s
daughter.
When informed that the charges might be refiled, Palissery said, “That’s
their choice.”