by peter e. bortner
A three-judge state Superior Court panel has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Coaldale man that prosecutors said tried to hit his wife with his truck in January 2012.
George J. Bonetsky, 35, provided no evidence to justify overturning his conviction on charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and reckless driving, the panel ruled in a 10-page opinion filed Tuesday in Pottsville.
"The commonwealth presented eyewitnesses whose testimony, along with other circumstantial evidence, 'fit together to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,' " Senior Judge James J. Fitzgerald III wrote in the panel's opinion.
By so ruling, the panel upheld the sentence of 10 days to 12 months in prison, plus two years probation, imposed on Oct. 3 by county Judge Jacqueline L. Russell.
After a one-day trial presided over by Russell, a jury convicted Bonetsky on Aug. 27 of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, while the judge found him guilty of reckless driving.
Coaldale police charged Bonetsky with trying to strike Angelique Bonetsky on Jan. 14, 2012 on Fourth Street in the borough after the couple had argued.
Fitzgerald wrote that Bonetsky's argument that no one could say how fast he was driving is irrelevant because it is not part of either the definition of simple assault or recklessly endangering another person. Furthermore, Bonetsky himself admitted he was driving faster than he should have been, according to Fitzgerald.
"He was aware that he was driving faster than a reasonable person would in his situation," Fitzgerald wrote.
Judges Mary Jane Bowes and Paula Francisco Ott, the other panel members, joined in Fitzgerald's opinion.