'I've never seen anything like it': police officer allegedly failed to reveal wrong young man was being prosecuted in case

“We are not taking this lightly,” Police Chief Justin Snyder said Wednesday about the conduct of Officer Benjamin Hitesman, who was accused of failing to notify authorities that the wrong juvenile was being prosecuted in a July 22 shooting incident, PennLive.com reported.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before” the boss said.

An internal investigation was launched into the misconduct.

Hitesman’s decision not to alert prosecutors or defense attorneys that the wrong minor was being prosecuted was nothing short of “notorious”, Lycoming County Judge Ryan Gardner wrote in a Sept. 24 opinion that was just made public, according to PennLive.com.

“I was kicked out of the water when this caught my attention,” District Attorney Tom Marino said, adding that this should never have happened, according to PennLive.com.

Hitesman’s credibility will forever be questioned due to this incident, possibly impacting other cases, Gardner said in his opinion.

One such case is that of Benjamin Villanueva, who faces trial for the December 9 shooting death of Jermaine Mullen. Hitesman is the lead investigator on the case.

Although Marino downplayed the repercussions in that case, explaining that other officers were involved in the investigation, there is DNA evidence and there was nothing in the case that Hitesman had sole control over, PennLive.com reported.

“You can’t run away from these situations,” Marino said, though he declined to opine on what the city should do with Hitesman, according to PennLive.com.

Hitesman’s refusal to pass on the information, “compromises the very definition of what should underline every criminal case presented before the court, justice”, Gardner said in his opinion, adding that actions like his are a “a factor that contributes significantly to why numerous recent national polls reflect that the general public’s trust in law enforcement, the prosecution, and the court is discredited,” Gardner wrote, PennLive.com reported.

If the omitted information had been released, it is more likely that the statement would not have provided probable cause for the warrant to be issued, Gardner said.

Defense attorney Matthew Diemer said he couldn’t add anything to what the judge wrote and is grateful that others did the right thing, according to PennLive.com.

Additionally, “A very dark cloud could be cast over the professionalism of other members of the Williamsport Police Department,” Gardner said in his written opinion, PennLive.com reported.

The incident in question occurred in the 2100 block of King Street, where police found a single .380 caliber brass casing in a church parking lot. Home surveillance captured two young men fleeing the scene, one of whom was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Hitesman obtained a search warrant for the residence of a young man he suspected of being in the case, where a .380 caliber handgun was found in a pillowcase in his bedroom.

He was then taken into custody on July 25 and detained the next day after a hearing, PennLive.com reported.

After viewing photos of the youths, a probation officer told Hitesman that the one wearing a white hoodie was the other youth, stating that she had seen the hoodie hanging in the other youth’s room during a home visit.

But Gardner released the young man to house arrest with electronic monitoring after emails were received by the District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 20 that cast doubt on Hitesman’s identification, according to PennLive.com.

Gardner later granted a defense motion to dismiss the charges following an Aug. 22 hearing.

During a closed-door deposition with Gardner, city police officer Nikita Bonnell testified that when she informed Hitesman that she had obtained a warrant to search the other young man’s residence, he responded: “this will hurt my case,” PennLive.com reported.

Hitesman later did not execute a search warrant at that residence despite knowing the clothing was observed there, the judge noted.