Halloween Website

By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN, Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER — A Common Pleas Court judge sentenced a Willistown man to prison Thursday for disrupting a group of Halloween trick-or-treaters, rejecting the man’s request for a reduced sentence.

President Judge James P. MacElree II ordered Randall P. Winslow III to serve one to 12 months in Chester County Prison on the charge of simple assault, stemming from the incident that took place in his Paoli neighborhood the evening of Oct. 31. A jury found him guilty of scuffling with the father of one of the young costumed creatures out that night.

MacElree also sentenced Winslow, 61, a local caretaker, to an additional five days to six months in county prison for driving under the influence that night. The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Mark Conte, had urged MacElree not to approve Winslow’s acceptance into the county’s Intermediate Punishment (IP) program, which would have permitted a lesser jail sentence.

“What Mr. Winslow did that night was nothing short of outrageous,” Conte said in court during Winslow’s sentencing hearing. “The commonwealth does not believe that he should be given the benefit” of the lesser sentence.

Both sentences are within the standard state sentencing guidelines for simple assault and DUI.

Defense attorney Joseph P. Green Jr., representing Winslow, told MacElree that his client had been approved by the county Adult Probation Department for admittance into the IP program, and that he had started treatment to control his drinking.

Winslow apologized for the incident, which parents of some of the trick-or-treaters said had caused a great deal of trauma.

“I am profoundly sorry at how the evening unfolded, and that the children were a part of it,” he said.

Winslow acknowledged, however, that he planned to appeal the DUI conviction, and MacElree allowed him to remain free on bail pending the filing of an appeal within 30 days — as is permitted by law.

According to court records and testimony at Winslow’s trial in April, the incident occurred about 7:45 p.m. Halloween evening on Beryl Road in a residential neighborhood in Willistown south of Route 30 near the Paoli Hospital.

The trick-or-treaters and their fathers were walking along the road, which has no sidewalks, when a car driven by Winslow sped up to them, skidding to a stop on the wet pavement. The parents said Winslow stopped to let them get out of the way but then revved his engine as he started away, at which time one of the parents shined a flashlight into his rear window as he left.

He stopped a short distance away, got out of the car, and approached the group in what Conte described as “a drunken rage.” He singled out Joseph Sullivan, who had shone the flashlight, and attacked him, swinging his fists and eventually falling with Sullivan to the ground in a heap as other men rushed to stop the ruckus.

Conte said that Sullivan’s young son was clinging to his father’s leg as the melee unfolded.

Winslow claimed at his trial that he had been jumped by a pack of the fathers, who knocked him on the head from behind. He said he was angered because the light from the powerful flashlight aggravated an eye condition he suffers from.

After the scuffle, Winslow drove away. Police responded later to his home and said he appeared intoxicated. He was charged with DUI, simple assault and disorderly conduct. The jury that heard his case acquitted him on a second count of simple assault.

Conte asked MacElree to take into account the testimony of parents of the children and residents of the neighborhood who said that Winslow continues to harass them and make life miserable.

“Now, our neighborhood has a black cloud smack dab in the middle of it, and that is Mr. Winslow,” said Chris Caniglia at an earlier hearing. “The world of ‘lollipops and rainbows’ that we tried to preserve for our children is no longer there.”

Caniglia attended Thursday’s hearing with two other fathers who were present the night of the incident, Mike Muscella and Frank Toner. None spoke at the hearing, and declined comment afterward.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan, send an e-mail to mrellahan@dailylocal.com.