A Pennsylvania dispatcher allegedly refused to send medical help to a sick woman in a rural area two years ago, after a family member called 911. Now, dispatcher Leon Price has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, official oppression, and obstruction of the administration of law or other government function.
The plaintiff, Kelly Titchenell, filed a federal civil lawsuit against Price and two fellow Greene County employees working at the 911 emergency communications center. Court documents state the plaintiff is seeking punitive damages for her "emotional injury."
In early July 2020, Pennsylvania resident Titchenell called 911 emergency dispatch in Greene County because her mother, 54-year-old Diana Kronk, was extremely ill. She was incoherent, jaundiced, and bleeding from a hole in her esophagus.
In the complaint, Titchenell states Price answered the 911 call that day as a dispatcher. Titchenell says she explained to Price that her mother was ill and needed to get to a hospital due to her making incoherent noises, turning yellow from jaundice, and being in bed for numerous days.
Kronk was living in a rural area of Pennsylvania without cell phone service, in her boyfriend’s home. When her daughter was driving to her mother’s home, she called 911 when she was about ten minutes away.
In court documents, Titchenell states she told Price, "She is going to die if she doesn't go to the hospital.”
But in court documents, Titchenell said Price told her, “Just call me when you get out there, OK?”
The lawsuit alleges Price did not send an ambulance but instead told Titchenell at the time that since her mother might refuse to go to the hospital, she would have to drive to her mother’s home and call 911 again. Only then, Tichenell alleges he said, could he dispatch an ambulance.
When Titchenell arrived at her mother’s home, she found her speaking incoherently on the front porch, naked. No phone of any kind was found in the home. Titchenell, in her complaint, said she expected 911 to send an ambulance.
“This is unheard of, to me. I mean, they’ll send an ambulance for anything,” she said. “And here I am telling this guy that my mom’s going to die. It’s, like, her death, and she doesn’t get an ambulance.”
Kronk died the day after the unsuccessful 911 call from internal bleeding.
In the complaint, Titchenell claims Price never had the authority to deny services to her mother and that his “actions were a direct and/or proximate cause of" her death.
As to whether idling ambulances were available at the time of Titchenell’s call to 911, as the complaint alleges, the defendant’s lawyer may not agree.
At the time of the 911 call, Greene County attorney Marie Jones, the attorney who will argue the case for the defendants, said on CNN, “These parties will be vigorously defending that matter.”
After filing the federal civil lawsuit, Titchenell made a statement on CNN during an interview, via her attorney, about her reasons for filing the suit against Price and two other employees working alongside him.
"I have no animosity toward Mr. Price. I hope he can find peace and forgiveness," said her attorney, Lawrence Bolind Jr., on Titchenell’s behalf. “Unfortunately, what happened to Ms. Kronk must not happen to anyone else in the commonwealth. That is why the civil lawsuit was filed."
Legal issues such as why anyone would be denied emergency services after a party calls 911 are now under investigation, according to Greene County District Attorney David Russo.
"The investigation is being expanded to 911 management to see if this was a result of a potential unwritten 911 management policy in Greene County,” said Russo in the CNN televised interview. "No one should be denied emergency services in Greene County or anywhere else. Everyone should have equal protections and access to medical treatment."
Price was charged on June 29, 2022, and released on $15,000 bail. With his preliminary hearing dates set in August and September 2022, Price cannot yet enter a plea of innocent or guilty.
