Melosky Hiring Aftermath

On Monday night the School Board hired Rob Melosky as the new football coach.

I made a post based on the newspaper articles (read it here).

Later that day Brad posted his notes from the meeting (read it here). Included in that post was reference to the hiring from the public and Dr. Lesky's response:

NASD has hired a new Football Coach, Mr. Robert Melosky. Several questions were asked at the end of the meeting regarding this hire. One specific question was whether there was anything in Mr. Melosky’s past that would cause NASD concern. Dr. Lesky responded there was not.

On that day a reader posted a link to Northampton County Courthouse documents, it appears to have been cut-off, but I also received an email from a different reader who provided it in full (view the court documents here).

Today, both the Express-Times (read it here) and Morning Call (read it here) have reports on the hiring. The Express-Times report is on Editor Joe Owens' Blog, whereas the Morning Call report was in the newspaper, so the tone is very different. Owens questions the Board and Administration for making the hire in light of the charges, whereas the Call indicates Parkland officials (where Melosky teaches) were unaware of the charges, but Nazareth officials were.

[note from the editor - update - thanks to a reader who informed me the Express-Times had the print article in Thursday on the incident - read it here]

The Morning Call reports:

Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Kelly A. Lewis said Thursday that Melosky is set to have a formal arraignment in county court next week on simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct charges.

Lewis said Melosky's preliminary hearing was April 3 before District Judge Joan Marinkovits.

The Morning Call also reported in describing the incident from court records:

Christopher Newhart, who was 17 at the time, stepped between the two and tried to prevent a fight. Sweeney allegedly hit Newhart in the face and head two times.

Melosky, who was at the game as a spectator, allegedly joined in and hit Newhart ''multiple times'' in the face and head.

Other people tried to calm Melosky, described by police as ''extremely agitated.''

George Stilgenbauer, who attended the game, testified at Melosky's preliminary hearing that he saw Sweeney hit Newhart, then saw Sweeney holding the boy's wrists.

''And the next thing I know, a very large man, who I didn't know who he was at the time, came from nowhere and hit [Newhart] right in the head. As [Newhart] started to fall, he hit him again,'' according to a transcript of Stilgenbauer's testimony.

Stilgenbauer, whose age and address were not included in the transcript, added that he believed Newhart was hurt.

''He was kind of out of it,'' Stilgenbauer said. As Stilgenbauer began pulling Newhart away, he testified that Melosky said, ''Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?''

Stilgenbauer said he responded, ''I don't care who you are. You don't hit a kid like this. This is ridiculous.''