Charges pulled on superintendent

BY STACI WILSON

A criminal charge lodged against theMountain ViewSchool Districtsuperintendent was withdrawn by Susquehanna County District Attorney Jason Legg.

Superintendent Andrew Chichura had been charged earlier this month with failure to report child abuse in connection with an allegation that a teacher had provided students with alcoholic beverages in June 2011.

In a letter from Legg to Magisterial District Judge Suzanne Brainard, the district attorney explained the basis for dropping the case.

Legg said Chichura provided a letter written by the district’s solicitor Raymond Rinaldi II which was faxed to the office of Wyoming County District Attorney Jeffrey Mitchell onAugust 11, 2011.

According to Legg, Rinaldi had the investigative report prepared by High School Principal Andrew Doster relative to the incident involving theMountain Viewteacher Bryan Hoover providing alcohol to students.

Legg said the correspondence was apparently sent to Mitchell based upon the mistaken belief that the alleged criminal acts occurred inWyomingCounty.

In a footnote, Legg wrote that Doster’s report indicated the teacher, Bryan Hoover, did live in Susquehanna County at the time of the incident and said it was difficult to see understand how it was mistaken he lived in Wyoming County.

TheSusquehannaCountydistrict attorney’s office received a copy of the letter Jan. 13 and verified that Mitchell had, in fact, received it.

Mitchell said he had forwarded the information to the Overfield Twp. police- which offers police coverage to Nicholson where Chichura believedHooverlived- but had not heard anything further regarding the investigation.

Legg also noted in his letter to the district judge the numerous attempts made by Tpr. John Oliver in November and December of 2011 to obtain requested information from Chichura.

It was also noted the trooper was not provided with a copy of theAugust 11, 2011, letter written by the district solicitor.

Given that Chichura attempted to alert the authorities about the allegations, the district attorney decided to withdraw the complaint.

Legg wrote, “It is truly disappointing that the State Police did not receive more cooperation in the investigation of this matter which certainly may have avoided the filing of any criminal charges.”

He also commended Doster for pursuing the matter even after he reported it to Chichura.

“Principal Doster’s perseverance assured that the State Police eventually obtained the necessary information to conduct an appropriate investigation that led to the criminal charges that have been filed against Bryan Hoover,” Legg said in the letter.

Legg also noted that the withdrawal of the criminal charge was not based upon a determination that the superintendent fulfilled his statutory obligation to make an immediate telephone report to Department of Public Welfare and a written report within 48 hours.

“Plainly, this did not occur in this circumstance as no report was ever made to the Department of Public Welfare,” Legg wrote.

“As an aside, this entire episode demonstrates the need for school administrators to simply comply with the mandatory reporting requirements provided under the applicable statute,” opined Legg. “If this had been done, the proper law enforcement entity would have been notified, a timely investigation would have followed, and there would not have been any confusion over whether an actual report had been made as required by statute.”

A preliminary hearing for Chichura had been scheduled for Jan. 31.

Hoover’s preliminary hearing before Judge Brainard is set for Feb. 14.