Justice derailed: Waiting for the word 'dismissed' in Somerset County's courts
She waited for years for her nightmare to end. Three years later the word "dismissed" shows up in the court docket.
She doesn't want to talk about it. It's too hurtful. She just wants to finally move on.
Laura Marie Mildner, 42, of Sarver, has been a defendant in the justice system with a harassment charge after several other charges were withdrawn or dismissed in 2020.
The Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Kevin Scheibel wrote the reason for his motion for nol pros without prejudice was "Commonwealth is unable to proceed at this time." Mildner and her attorney, Matthew Zatko of Somerset, "are in agreement."
More: Somerset County President Judge D. Gregory Geary's portrait soon to be unveiled
But what does it really mean?
When a case is nol pros without prejudice it means that the prosecution basically dismissed the case but can refile the charges. A dismissal without prejudice happens before the court trial takes place, so technically the defendant hasn't been tried once yet. Similarly, someone facing a criminal case for the same offense isn't facing double jeopardy because they are different court proceedings. It also means that Mildner and not the county has to pay the $125 owed for the balance of fines, costs and restitution to the court in a case she vehemently denies any part.
On July 13, her case was nol pros without prejudice, and on Sept. 18, Mildner's attorney filed a petition for expungement in Somerset County Court. If such a request is approved by a county judge then the case is erased from the system as if it never existed. Nothing has been done on the request. It basically is first come, first out, thus, her petition is in a waiting mode.
But, stories about her case are still alive and well on social media, specifically Google, and will remain so because the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a unique identifier used to locate a resource on the Internet that tells a web browser how and where to retrieve a resource, is locked once a resource is displayed. The only thing that media can do once an article is on social media is put an editor's note at the top of the older stories updating an article, as in this case, a dismissal.
Initially, Mildner was accused of sending a letter with screenshots of messages and sexually explicit pictures via Facebook messenger from the account page of Sophia Canella to another woman at her work through the mail on Oct. 15, 2019, according to state police.
More: A new project involving first responders planned for Flight 93 National Memorial
More than a year after Mildner's case entered the state trial court, her "former friend" Monica Victoria Knepper, 40. Cat Springs, Texas, was charged with the same offenses connected to the case. She is currently awaiting a response to a request to the Somerset County Acting District Attorney Molly Metzgar to be placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) Program based on the offense of design/copying of obscene material, a misdemeanor. Being placed in the ARD program is not admitting guilt. The ARD is a unique program, approved by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, generally for first-time offenders who have no prior criminal convictions or prior ARD dispositions. The primary purpose of the ARD program is the prompt disposition of charges, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming trials and other court proceedings. The program is designed to recognize those offenders who are amenable to treatment and rehabilitation and effectively remove their cases from the criminal justice system. Knepper's case was continued on Sept. 8.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Justice derailed: Waiting for the word 'dismissed' in Somerset County
