Criminal Defense
Ex-Prosecutor to be Tried This Week on Vehicular Homicide Charge
Posted Jul 28, 2008, 08:33 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A former suburban Philadelphia prosecutor goes on trial this week in the 2007 death of his girlfriend, who fell from his speeding pickup.
The defendant, Richard Patton, formerly worked as an assistant district attorney in Bucks County and in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, the Intelligencer reports. He is charged with vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the death of Heather Demou, a 34-year-old real estate agent, the Associated Press reports.
Witnesses said the couple had been arguing in a restaurant parking lot, and Demou jumped onto Patton’s pickup before it sped away. Patton maintains he didn’t realize Demou jumped onto the truck and that his view was blocked by a coat hanging behind the passenger-side headrest, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.