Jury convicts NM man on 2 counts

BY STACI WILSON

During a one-day trial last week, a New Milford man’s attorney claimed the conflict over construction vehicles and equipment parked at a site near the man’s business reached a boiling point last summer but that his client never meant to threaten workers at the site when he grabbed a rifle and fired a shot into the air.

That conflict, according to court testimony offered in the July 10 trial in the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas, started when Perry General Contracting crews were working on a housing project across the street from Wayne Bradley’s trucking company in New Milford Borough.

 “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see there was some kind of conflict,” Wayne Bradley’s attorney Edmund Scachetti told a Susquehanna County jury during his closing arguments. “As long as there is testosterone, there will be conflict,” Scachetti said.

The defense’s testosterone argument was countered by District Attorney Marion O’Malley in her closing remarks to the jury.

“Dave Perry said he was scared, despite the testosterone. (Bradley) was trying to scare them, terrorize them – and he did,” she said as she asked the jury to look at the defendant’s actions and intentions during the incident.

O’Malley said it was “small set of facts” the jury had to look at in her closing arguments. Those facts were laid out for the jury in the case against Bradley, age 72, who faced simple assault, terroristic threats and reckless endangerment charges following an Aug. 17, 2017 incident in New Milford Borough.

After just over an hour of deliberation, the jury issued guilty verdicts on the counts of simple assault and terroristic threats; and acquitted him on the reckless endangering charge late Tuesday afternoon.

According to court testimony, Bradley was the passenger of a tractor trailer his son Michael was driving on Aug. 17. The father and son arrived back at the business hauling a load of insulation back to the Wayne Bradley Trucking business located at 53 Susquehanna St., New Milford.

Vehicles and equipment parked at a Susquehanna Housing Authority building site made it difficult to park his tractor trailers at his location, Bradley told the court as he took the stand in his own defense.

He also said he had asked workers with Perry’s General Contracting to move vehicles and/or equipment on occasions prior to Aug. 17 and told the court they had done so when requested.

“It was obvious to me they were doing it intentionally,” Bradley said, noting he had asked previously asked them to park elsewhere. Under cross examination, he said the construction workers parked vehicles and equipment at the site to inconvenience him.

On the stand, David Perry said the construction vehicles and equipment were not placed on the site in order to antagonize Bradley or deliberately provoke him. He also said they attempted to accommodate Bradley’s requests to move equipment.

So it was then that Bradley grabbed a metal load bar tightener from the floor of the tractor trailer and walked over to the job site. The bar, according to testimony weighed about 30 lbs.

Bradley said he took the bar with him because the construction workers were much younger than him and wanted to be prepared in case something “jumped off.”

He said he told John Perry to, “Move the truck or you won’t want to see what happens if you don’t.” Bradley said Perry responded by saying, “I want to see what happens.”

It was then that Bradley said he walked into his Susquehanna Street house and brought out a deer rifle, then shot one shot into the air.

In earlier witness testimony, it had been alleged that Bradley point the gun at the vehicle the truck driver needed to have moved. Bradley denied that allegation stating, “He was doing what needed to happen. There was no reason to point a gun at anybody.”

O’Malley questioned Bradley’s reason for carrying the metal bar onto the construction site.

“Were you angry,” the DA asked. “Yeah, probably,” came the answer.

She later asked if he was looking for a confrontation. “I was not looking for one,” he said, “I was prepared for one.”

In later testimony, Bradley said he told Dave and John Perry there would be “consequences” before he went to get the gun.

O’Malley asked why Bradley introduced a gun into the situation.

“The point of bringing the gun was to get their attention. I wanted the truck moved not to threaten them.”

He said that following that, he went to a friend’s home and didn’t find out until later that state police had been called to the scene. “It’s not wise to tell state police anything without a lawyer being with you,” Bradley said.

A sentencing hearing for Bradley has been scheduled for Aug. 1 at 11 a.m. in the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas.