1/9/18
by News Department on 01/09/18Charges dropped...
46 year old Patricia L. Socko, of Pottsville, no longer faces charges, including involuntary manslaughter in connection with a fatal ATV accident in June 2017 in Foster Township.
According to the Republican Herald, President Judge William E. Baldwin ruled Socko is not criminally responsible for the death of Martina M. Barnhart, and he dismissed all nine charges, against her.
Foster Township police had charged Socko with losing control of her all-terrain vehicle on June 3, 2017. The ATV crashed, and Barnhart, a backseat passenger, died.
Unless reversed, the decision, which prosecutors can appeal to the state Superior Court, means Socko no longer faces prosecution for the incident arising from a poker run on June 3, 2017.
