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Deanne Paul will ‘hit the ground running’ in Bedford County DA’s office

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Former Blair County Assistant District Attorney Deanne Paul stands in front of the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg.

One of the longest-serving Blair County assistant district attorneys, Deanne E. Paul, has retired from her position and will be joining the staff of the Bedford County District Attorney.

On Aug. 14, Paul ended a 23-year career in Blair County, where she handled more than 10,000 cases, including many homicide trials as well and child sexual abuse and domestic violence cases.

She also assisted now-retired District Attorney Richard Consiglio in preparing appeals briefs for those cases that eventually ended up before the Pennsylvania Superior and Supreme courts or the federal courts.

Consiglio said just last week she helped him complete an expansive legal brief that was filed before the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals involving the ongoing appeal of Christopher Michael Rodland, 42, of Hollidaysburg, who is serving a lengthy state sentence for multiple arsons committed in Blair County.

That task involved sifting through “boxes and boxes” of documents that have been accumulating throughout 20 years of trials and appeals in the Rodland case, Consiglio said.

Consiglio, who is still working part time for the Blair DA’s office handling not only appeals but also the upcoming re-trial for Paul Aaron Ross, said the assistant DA was invaluable when it came to helping him prepare for trials and the subsequent appeals.

“She’s a good lawyer. I was sorry to see her retire,” he said.

He said she was particularly good with victims and was very successful when going before juries.

Team effort

Paul, who shed a tear when attempting to talk about her career in Blair County, said she was leaving because she wanted a change of pace, but she noted, “I’m honored to have worked with so many amazing people throughout my career.

“I wouldn’t be here without the efforts of so many others. It’s always been a team effort to effectuate justice within our community. I have truly loved my job and my time in public service here. I hope I have made a positive difference.”

Paul, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up near Youngstown, came to Blair County by way of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Her first job out of law school was as a law clerk for former Cambria County Judge Thomas A. Swope Jr.

In 1998, she came to Blair County after former District Attorney Dave Gorman hired her for a new position that was funded through the federal Violence Against Women’s Act, supposedly a temporary position.

For the next 15 years, Paul devoted her life to improving the criminal justice system’s response to the abuse of women.

“Among other responsibilities I had — pursuant to the STOP grant position — my job in the DA’s office was to handle every domestic violence/sexual abuse case, at every magistrate office every week,” she said.

She also worked with a local STOP Grant Task Force and helped develop the Blair County Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner program in which she trained nurses to conduct rape kit examinations and collect evidence to be used in court.

Her job as prosecutor of cases involving violence against women and children led her into the darkest of places.

Less than six months into her job, she counseled with a woman who was too frightened of her boyfriend to appear in court, but the case went forward because police had done a thorough job of collecting evidence.

They had the woman’s 911 call for help, photographs of her injuries and eyewitnesses.

But, as Paul explained, the magistrate for the case reduced the boyfriend’s bail and he was released from prison pending trial.

“Two weeks later, the defendant beat the victim to death,” she explained. He ended up pleading to third-degree murder and remains in prison serving a 20- to 40-year sentence.

“That case furthered my passion to help protect victims, as well as to educate the community, police and judicial system regarding the lethality of domestic violence cases,” Paul said.

Brutal cases

She went on to try many other domestic violence cases, including a father who sexually assaulted his children, terrorized his wife and had his family living in deplorable conditions.

That defendant received a minimum sentence of 46- to- 177 years behind bars.

She helped prepare the death penalty case against a Tyrone man who visited his estranged girlfriend in an attempt to make up with her — after serving time in prison for abusing her.

On the day of the visit, Dec. 26, 2005, things turned ugly. The man once again attacked his former girlfriend, beating and raping her, and — in the process — stabbing her 6-year-old son to death.

Paul said when she saw photos of the child with a knife in his neck, she became physically ill.

She helped try other brutal domestic cases, including that of Andre Staton, who is on death row for violating a protection-from-abuse order and breaking into his former girlfriend’s home, where he stabbed her to death.

Paul has also been working closely with Consiglio as he prepares for the re-trial of the Ross homicide case.

In yet another homicide case, Paul said she helped prepare the appeal in which a Huntingdon County man, now serving a life sentence, fired into a crowd of people at a dance in an attempt to kill his estranged girlfriend, but instead, he shot and killed another woman.

The list of cases on which she worked involved many other homicide, domestic abuse and child abuse cases.

Talented, compassionate

Blair County Common Pleas Court Judge Jackie Bernard, a former First Assistant District Attorney under Gorman and Consiglio, said she worked closely with Paul during her time as the STOP grant prosecutor.

“She is a talented trial attorney,” Bernard said.

“(Paul) related well to jurors, and, I think the jurors respected her,” Bernard said.

She “has a real heart for serving the victims of crime. … She has a real heart for her work,” the judge said.

In 2012, Paul became the DA’s representative in Juvenile Court.

“Taking over the juvenile cases was an easy transition for me, as I was so familiar with the dynamics of family violence and issues like drug and alcohol abuse, which can affect healthy relationships and healthy families,” she said.

Blair County President Judge Elizabth A. Doyle, as an assistant district attorney, had a hand in hiring Paul in 1998.

The judge said Paul “has such compassion for the domestic violence victims and also compassion for victims and children in Juvenile Court.”

As a juvenile prosecutor, Paul upheld the standards of the prosecutor’s office, and the safety of the community, while realizing the defendants in the cases are children, Doyle said.

“We are sorry to see her go,” she said.

Bedford County District Attorney Lesley Childers said Paul was hired because of her experience.

“Attorney Paul will be able to hit the ground running as soon as she comes to work with us.”

Paul will begin her new job on Aug. 31, Childers said.

She will join a staff that includes a county detective and another assistant.

Paul has three grown children: a son at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, a daughter in pharmacy school in Ohio and a son who is an undergraduate at Ohio State University.

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