Trial ordered for Lansdale man accused of harrowing domestic assault incident

LANSDALE >> A Lansdale man accused of a harrowing domestic assault last month during which police said he choked his pregnant girlfriend, threatened to kill her, and then tied her up and told her she was going to watch him die as he shot up heroin was ordered Nov. 20 to stand trial on several criminal counts after a dramatic preliminary hearing in which the alleged victim took the witness stand, unsuccessfully tried to plead the Fifth Amendment to keep from testifying, then recanted the statement she gave to detectives on the day of the alleged incident.

Steven DiPanfilo, 33, of the 800 block of Derstine Avenue, faces trial on two counts of misdemeanor simple assault, one count each of misdemeanor terroristic threats, misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person and misdemeanor false imprisonment, and summary counts of harassment and disorderly conduct.

Sitting at the defendants table inside Lansdale District Judge Harold Boreks courtroom next to his attorney, Robert McGuckin, DiPanfilo who is free on $25,000 bond drew Boreks ire early in the proceedings when, after McGuckin objected to a Lansdale police detective taking the stand to read the entire statement given by the victim but was overruled by the judge, DiPanfilo began to loudly object as well.

Youre going to get a $100,000 bail if you continue, Borek snapped as DiPanfilo sank bank into his chair.

The detective then read the statement in full while DiPanfilo and the victim, who had been subpoenaed to appear at the hearing and sat behind the prosecutors table, both stared at the floor.

According to the statement, the woman said that in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, DiPanfilo woke her up and began arguing with her about their relationship the altercation escalated to the point where he told the woman he was going to knock her [expletive] teeth in, then grabbed her, put his hand over her mouth and held her down on the bed.

After telling the woman to be quiet, DiPanfilo took his hand off the womans mouth and put both hands around her throat and started choking her, while getting on top of her and preventing her from moving.

He then grabbed the woman by the hair and yanked her to the edge of the bed, tied her hands together with a black T-shirt and told her she was going to watch him die because I was a liar and a cheater, according to the statement, as he prepared a syringe full of what she believed to be heroin and injected himself, then kept her tied up against the bed for a few hours while he nodded in and out from the effects of the drug,

During the entirety of the incident, according to her statement, the woman repeatedly begged DiPanfilo to let her go and to let her get her twin 11-year-old sons who were asleep in the house out of the residence, but he said to her, Sit the [expletive] down, you are not going anywhere and that he would kill her if she didnt shut up.

She finally got out of the residence with her two boys and officers responded to the home around 7:30 a.m., police said. Continued...

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Trial ordered for Lansdale man accused of harrowing domestic assault incident