Pocono News Section

Assault & DUI Charges Dropped Against Scranton Man

Assault & DUI Charges Dropped Against Scranton Man - Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 4:27PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday, Oct 29, 2009 @ 04:27pm EDT
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - Assault and DUI charges have been withdrawn against a Scranton man. Maurice Faulkner was accused of driving his car over a woman twice earlier this year.

The victim, Donna Townsend, suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung. The charges were withdrawn because a key eyewitness didn't show up to court.

"Very happy," that's all Faulkner would say as he left the courthouse Thursday.

"We made the decision to withdraw the charges, locate our witness and when we do locate her, we will be re-filing these charges against Mr. Faulkner," assistant district attorney Corey Kolcharno said.

Faulkner was facing a slew of assault and DUI charges for an incident that happened in the parking lot of the McDonalds Restaurant on South Washington Avenue in April. Police say Faulkner drove his car over Townsend twice. The key witness who allegedly saw Faulkner behind the wheel was an employee.

"There were unable to get any witnesses because there are no witnesses that really can support their case and justice was done," defense attorney Joe D'Andrea said.

Defense lawyers say the whole incident happened after a large fight and they have witnesses to show Faulkner was not behind the wheel.

Prosecutors say they will continue to move forward in their case as soon as they can.

"This is part of the business that we're in and unfortunately we make our best efforts to locate witnesses and prep witnesses, but unfortunately, this was an unfortunate situation," Kolcharno said.

Besides running over the victim twice, prosecutors say Faulkner also hit a parked car and crashed his car into a beer distributor.