Dec 28, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Greene County judge earlier this month acquitted a Waynesburg man of assaulting his daughter-in-law in a case that prosecutors said sets a bad precedent.

Ronald A. Rose, 59, of 709 Third Ave., was charged in February with unlawful restraint, simple assault and harassment for an argument that police said ended with him punching his daughter-in-law, Dawn Rose, in the face.

President Judge Farley Toothman found Rose not guilty Dec. 14 on all charges during a nonjury trial, stating Rose is legally blind and thought the daughter-in-law was being “combative” and may have had a gun in her hand.

In his order, Toothman states Ronald Rose’s son, who is also named Ronald, and Dawn were going through a divorce at the time of the incident and she had not been living at their marital home at 46 W. Lincoln St. in Waynesburg. The day of the incident, Dawn visited the house to do “domestic chores” and began arguing with one of her teenage children about guns that were kept at the house.

Dawn called police during the argument and had walked outside the residence to talk to officers. When she went back inside the residence, Rose punched her multiple times, injuring her arm, lip and eye. Toothman said because Rose is “only able to see blurry images,” he saw a “black thing” in Dawn’s hand when she walked back in the house, and suspected it was a gun.

“Legally blind, defendant Rose found himself all alone in the house, with a combative Dawn, with a gun, and a toddler child that he was caring for,” Toothman wrote in the order. “Voices raised, frustrations mounted at each other, then arms flew and the defendant and Dawn wrestled each other to the floor, with the defendant ending up sitting on Dawn’s back, having hit her with his fist once or twice.”

Toothman said in his order Dawn and her father-in-law had a healthy relationship previously, but that with the divorce, family tensions grew.

“… With overhearing another contentious battle between Dawn and her (son), and now over guns, and with all the shouting, and the police coming, and (her daughter) leaving the living room couch to just walk out and away, and with a toddler in his care, the defendant had had enough,” Toothman wrote in his order.

Toothman found Rose not guilty because his “intent to commit the crime” had not been fully proven by prosecutors. Toothman called Rose’s conduct “intentional” but said it was “not his conscious object or purpose to cause bodily injury, as much as it was to protect himself and the toddler, and the marital property, and to forcefully calm the situation with a very combative Dawn Rose, whom he thought was holding a gun, and continuing the volatile drama.”

Greene County Assistant District Attorney Brianna Vanata said she was surprised and disappointed by Toothman’s decision.

“I think that’s a very dangerous message to send to the public – that the level of violence that we showed that Mr. Rose subjected the victim to is an acceptable way to deal with family frustrations,” she said. “These people were going through a divorce, and there was a lot of tension in the family, and this was how Mr. Rose decided to handle it.”

Vanata said she’s “nervous” about the precedent the order sets for women.

“I just don’t think that was a good message to put out there,” Vanata said.

Rose’s public defender, Harry Cancelmi, called the verdict the “right decision.”

“He’s a good man, and it’s unfortunate there was a family situation that created trouble for everybody involved,” Cancelmi said.