Axed

A criminal conviction has drawn an interim suspension from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Daily Times reported

A Delaware County lawyer was suspended Monday after pleading guilty to simple assault and trespassing in November.

Shawn-Ryan White, 38, of Upper Darby, pleaded guilty to both offenses under separate dockets before Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin F. Kelly and was given a sentence of 11½ to 23 months in jail with two years of concurrent probation under the negotiated plea worked out by Assistant District Attorney Annie Yoskoski and defense counsel Scott Galloway.

White was also ordered to serve 644 days back time for a parole violation on a 2019 trespassing charge, but was given immediate parole in that case. Galloway said White had been incarcerated since Aug. 29, 2021.

In the simple assault case, East Lansdowne police were called to the Exxon station at 1001 Baltimore Pike May 4, 2021, for a report of an assault victim and a man chasing a woman down the street with an ax.

Responding officers found the victim in the Exxon parking lot hysterically crying, according to an affidavit of probable cause. She told officers White was trying to kill her and that he had tried to barricade them both inside a house on Beverly Avenue.

White busted the home’s storm door with the ax after the victim escaped out the front door, cutting her face, hand and stomach area, then chased her to the parking lot, the affidavit says.

Police responded to the address the victim reported, but found only the evidence of the busted door and an illegal power hookup provided by a car battery. Police noted the victim had suffered several cuts and she was transported to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital for treatment.

Collingdale police were dispatched to an apartment on the first block of Cherry Street July 31, 2021, for a report of a burglary, according to a second affidavit. Police found the door had been kicked or pried open and a window air conditioner unit had been tampered with, but the victim reported nothing was missing.

The victim later reported that White, who he had known previously, called him later that night and told him he broke into the apartment, according to the affidavit. The victim was also able to identify White as the intruder from a neighbor’s Ring camera video.

Dr. Jerry Lazaroff conducted an interview with White in January 2022 and concluded he suffers from bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence, noting he had two prior arrests for driving under the influence.

Kelly noted in November that a report recommended White be placed into a high-intensity residential treatment program, but acquiesced to White’s request that he be placed in an outpatient program and be overseen by the substance abuse unit of Adult Probation and Parole.

A Linkedin page for White shows he had a solo practice in Woodlyn for more than eight years until February 2023 and is currently a curator for a Philadelphia art studio.

The order issued by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board on Monday did not indicate the period that White would be suspended, but did state that his rights to petition for dissolution or amendment of the order were preserved.

(Mike Frisch)