Lower Burrell man accused of dragging 11-year-old down steps ordered to stand trial on assault charge
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A Lower Burrell man accused of injuring his 11-year-old son by dragging him down a staircase and across a parking lot to his car has been ordered to stand trial.
Richard John Acierno, 41, of the 2800 block of Edgecliff Road faces a June 15 arraignment in Westmoreland County Court on a charge of simple assault after a judge ordered him to stand trial following his preliminary hearing Tuesday, May 30, according to court records.
Following his arrest May 17, Acierno was detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of cash bail, which was set at 10% of $10,000. He was released from custody May 25 after a Greensburg bail agency posted the $1,000 bond, court records show.
Lower Burrell police wrote in a criminal complaint that staff at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison reported possible child abuse after the boy’s mother brought him in with a wrist injury and he told them how he was hurt.
The boy’s mother told police she recently had modified a protection from abuse order to allow her ex-husband, Acierno, to visit with their two children, the complaint said.
She said the boy was at Acierno’s home May 13 when the boy called to tell her he wanted to come home because he had suffered a cut while eating dinner with his father and uncle, according to the complaint.
The boy told his mother he was reaching for another slice of pizza when his uncle came at him “jokingly” with a pizza cutter and cut the back of his right hand, the complaint said.
The woman told police she ordered her son to tell his father to return him to their prearranged drop-off location and she would pick him up, the complaint said.
A short time later, the boy called back and told her Acierno dragged him down the steps, knelt on his ankle and didn’t stop twisting his wrist until he heard a “pop,” the complaint said. The boy told his mother that Acierno then dragged him by his shirt across the parking lot and into his vehicle, police said.
The woman told police the phone calls from her son were followed by a call from Acierno, who told her he got into a fight with the boy after the 11-year-old kicked him in the genitals and pushed him against a wall, the complaint said.
Police noted in the complaint that the boy is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 80 pounds, and Acierno is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs about 220 pounds.
After picking up the boy, the woman spent about an hour trying to ease his wrist pain with ice before taking him to the hospital for treatment, the complaint said.
Police arrested Acierno after the woman and boy provided written statements detailing how the injury occurred, the complaint said.