GUILTY PA - Edward O'Brien, 92, dies of neglect, Chester County, 8 Sept 2013

The Common Pleas judge who presided over two trials involving accusations that a West Whiteland man had allowed his father to die by keeping him from medical treatment or nursing care imposed a state prison term for the 61-year-old attorney on Wednesday.

Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft agreed with the prosecution that a term of five to 10 years behind bars was appropriate in the case, both because it took into account Edward O’Brien III’s advanced age and his lack of a criminal record, but also because anything less would send the wrong message.

“If I impose a sentence that is any less … I would be depreciating the seriousness of the crime,” Wheatcraft said in handing down her sentence to a hushed courtroom.

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O’Brien III, who had maintained through the two trials that he was acting on his elderly father’s long-held wishes that he not be taken to a nursing home or be cared for by strangers, declined to make any statement before Wheatcraft handed down her sentence. “I do not wish to do so your honor,” O’Brien III said, standing at the defense table.

Wheatcraft allowed O’Brien III to remain free on bail pending an appeal of the case, at the request of his attorney, Joseph P. Green Jr. of West Chester. Green indicated he intended to challenge a jury instruction that Wheatcraft had given in the case regarding the burden of proof.

O’Brien and Green left the courtroom to post the bail at the conclusion of the 20-minute proceeding.

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