Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Gregory Malia, a priest with the Diocese of Bethlehem, waved a gun outside a bar, police say.
Malia
PLAINS TWP. – Episcopal priest Gregory Malia did not injure anyone when he allegedly waved a handgun at his two daughters and their boyfriends outside a Jenkins Township tavern in July, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Attorney Nanda Palissery said there was no evidence the gun was loaded.
Jenkins Township police allege in arrest records that Malia, 44, of Laflin, waved a gun as his daughter, Marilyn Malia, 23, was being assaulted by Angela Sweet, 24, in the parking lot of the River Street Ale House on July 7.
After nearly two hours of testimony, District Judge Diana Malast agreed with Palissery, dismissing four felony counts of aggravated assault, the most serious charges, against Malia.
Malast forwarded six counts of reckless endangerment and two counts each of simple assault and disorderly conduct against Malia to Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
The district judge sent two counts each of simple assault and driving under the influence, and one count each of harassment and disorderly conduct against Sweet to county court.
Sweet, of Larksville, was one of two women with Malia inside the tavern when Marilyn Malia arrived with her boyfriend, Ron Romashko.
They were meeting her sister, Amanda Malia, and her boyfriend, Dennis Condusta, and did not know their father was there.
“I asked my sister if we should leave and she said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Don’t let him ruin your night,’ ” Marilyn Malia testified.
Marilyn Malia said she stood with Romashko on the other side of the tavern away from her father. As a band was playing, she testified her father was dancing with Sweet and intentionally bumped into her shoulder.
“I threw my beer in his face,” Marilyn Malia testified. “My boyfriend grabbed my arm and told me it was time to leave.”
Marilyn Malia sat in her car talking to her sister when she noticed her father, Sweet and the other woman, identified in arrest records as Lara Nasser, standing near them.
“I felt bad for throwing beer at him,” Marilyn Malia testified.
Marilyn Malia said she got out of the vehicle and her father and Sweet started yelling at her. She said Sweet approached her and demanded an apology because beer had splattered onto her.
Marilyn Malia said when she turned around she was grabbed from behind by Sweet, who allegedly punched her in the face breaking her nose.
Romashko, 24, testified he tried to break up the fight when Malia brandished a handgun.
“I heard, ‘He has a gun,’ and turned my head and saw Greg with a gun,” Romashko said. “He forced me to leave.”
Condusta testified he grabbed Amanda Malia when he saw the gun, and the two ran behind a fence where they called 911. Romashko said he also ran behind the fence.
Marilyn Malia said Sweet shoved her face in the ground and stopped punching her after seeing blood.
Gregory Malia, Sweet and Nasser sped away in a Jaguar that was stopped by Plains Township police Sgt. Dale Binker in the Plains Plaza shopping center.
Binker said Sweet, the driver, had an odor of alcohol on her breath.
Assistant District Attorney Jenny Roberts said Sweet had a blood alcohol level of .142 percent.
Police said in arrest records that they recovered a loaded .38-caliber handgun inside the Jaguar.
Malia, a priest with the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, refused to comment after the hearing.
After the charges were filed in July, the Episcopal Diocese suspended him from conducting priestly ministries or presenting himself as a priest.
Malia and Sweet are scheduled to be formally arraigned in county court on Jan. 7.