WEST CHESTER — A Chester County Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that a criminal case against a Delaware County man charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident involving a bicyclist in Willistown two years ago and not turning himself into police for several hours can move forward to trial.
And it may, but with a new attorney making the case for the accused.
Last month, defendant Michael Larkin switched lawyers, dropping the team of veteran criminal defense attorneys that had represented him since his arrest and who had recently argued that the charges against him were unjustified and “absurd,” and hired new counsel.
Attorney Dan Bush of the West Chester law firm Lamb McErlane, a longtime Chester County criminal defense attorney, entered his appearance in the case on June 24, a little more than two weeks after Common Pleas Judge Analisa Sondergaard denied a petition to dismiss the charges against Larkin and ordered the case to trial.
The petition for habeas corpus had been filed earlier this year by attorneys Arthur Donato of Media and Peter Kratsa of the West Chester firm McElree Harvey. Both had been Larkin’s attorneys for months and even fought an attempt this spring by the prosecution to have Donato removed from the case because of an alleged conflict of interest.
Reached Wednesday, Kratsa declined to comment on Larkin’s change of counsel. Bush also declined to comment on the charge but said he expected the matter to go to trial sometime later this year.
Larkin, 39, of Marple, Delaware County, is charged in the July 18, 2020, death of Michael Hackman, an esteemed advocate for the homeless in the region for his work forging Chester County’s Decade to Doorways anti-homelessness effort and work with the Uncommon Individual Foundation in Devon.
Hackman, 64, was out for some exercise on his bicycle on Providence Road, riding past the fields of the Radnor Hunt Club in Willistown and the adjacent White Manor Country Club, pedaling towards his home in Paoli, where he lived with his wife, Charlene.
Hackman was allegedly struck from behind by Larkin’s white Mercedes-Benz convertible around 7:45 p.m. He died later from his injuries.
Willistown Police Detective Steve Jones charged Larkin in November 2020 with accidents involving death or personal injury, a felony charge generally thought of as “leaving the scene of an accident.” Larkin, Jones contended in his arrest affidavit, waited for several hours before speaking with Donato by phone and having the attorney direct police to him, despite having several opportunities to inform the police at the scene that he had been involved in the crash.
But Donato and Kratsa, in their motion to have the charges against Larkin dismissed, argued that it was misdirection and miscommunication by authorities that prevented their client from giving information to police about his involvement in the crash.
The prosecution, they wrote, “did not and cannot prove … that Mr. Larkin was involved in an accident … and attempted to avoid his statutory responsibilities pertaining to his involvement. The two-hour delay in Mr. Larkin speaking with the police resulted from miscommunications between Commonwealth agents and it is absurd to allege he committed the offenses of which he is now accused.”
Their motion pointed most directly to an exchange that Larkin had engaged in with fire police officers from the Berwyn Fire Company who had responded to the area of the crash to direct traffic.
One, Lt. John Chapman, testified at a preliminary hearing that he was approached by a man on foot — later identified as Larkin — who wanted to know “when someone was going to come up and talk to him.” Another, Capt. Mark John, testified that the man asked to speak with a police officer and that he told the fire chief about the encounter.
Larkin then went back to his Mercedes, which was parked on a side street off Providence Road. Donato and Kratsa said no one ever notified police about the encounter, which they indicated was initiated by Larkin.
The evidence, they argued to Sondergaard, showed that Larkin had met his responsibility in notifying authorities about his involvement in the crash that killed Hackman.
But in response, Assistant District Attorney Lori Edelman, who is prosecuting the case, argued that far from Larkin meeting his legal obligations, he failed to do so on multiple occasions all the while telephoning a friend, his own brother, and, finally, Donato, who was the one who called police on Larkin’s behalf. “He did not call police,” she wrote.
In her brief, Edelman said that Larkin eventually told police that he had hit something on Providence Road and saw a bicycle lying in the road when he looked in the rear view mirror. He did not stop, however, and continued driving.
A short time afterward, Larkin rove back to the spot of the crash and spoke with a woman who was there. She told him there had been an accident, and he turned around and drove away. Returning again later, the woman told him the incident was “very serious,” after he asked, “How bad is it?” He did not say anything about his own involvement.
Larkin then returned to the scene about 20 minutes later and encountered Willistown Officer Jesse Emmons, who was directing traffic. He spoke with the officer and was told to turn around, but again did not say anything about being involved in the crash. Meanwhile, he was making numerous telephone calls on his cell phone.
In the encounter with fire police, Larkin “did not provide his name, his information, or state that he was involved in the accident,” Edelman wrote. Instead, he went back to his car and made calls to his friend, his brother, and Donato, who made the call to 9-1-1 about the crash around 10:40, almost three hours after the crash.
It was that call that had led the prosecution to argue that Donato should be barred from representing Larkin since he might be called as a witness in the case, which would be a conflict. Sondergaard denied the request, however.
“If the defendant had called police or told anyone he was involved instead of hiding in a cul de sac for almost three hours, we would not be here today,” Edelman wrote. “(Larkin) did not comply with the law, substantially comply with the law, or even comply with the spirit of the law.”
Sondergaard gave no reason for her decision in her denial of Larkin’s motion to dismiss.
It is uncertain when the case might go to trial. Sondergaard has a full case docket, and only 13 more weeks of criminal duties before the end of the year.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
