Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
A charge of misdemeanor simple assault was dropped in case of the 51-year-old resident of Bristol Township’s Levittown section who is accused of freaking out and throwing a tomato and other objects at his 73-year-old mother. Charges of misdemeanor resisting arrest and summary harassment stand against Gerald Applegate and have been forwarded to Doylestown for trial.
Applegate’s attorney at the hearing asked District Judge Joanne Kline to drop the entire case because of the lack of lingering injury to Applegate’s mother and other factors.
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According to police, Applegate’s mother refused to lend him her car after she got home from the grocery store in September. He then became upset and threw a tomato at her along with a basket, which she threw back at him, the mother of the suspect testified in court. A bottle was also reportedly thrown but not in the direction of the mother.
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Officer John Rink arrived and found the apartment where the mother and son lived to be disheveled. He said in court that there was crushed tomato on the floor and the elderly woman was physically shaking, crying and holding her chest.
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“She said her chest hurt because she was hit with a tomato,” the officer testified in court. The strike from the fruit left no serious injury, authorities said.
Rink said Applegate sat at a computer in the apartment as the officer tired to arrest him for the incident and refused to cooperate at first. The officer said he asked Applegate, who is much larger, several times to get up so he could take him into custody and the 51-year-old refused. Finally, the officer tased Applegate to little effect. Several officers then pulled him down and handcuffed him, Rink said.
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As Rink lead Applegate down the steps of the apartment to a waiting police van, the suspect made an allegedly intentional motion that caused the officer to fall and suffer minor injuries, which he testified were painful.
Applegate apologized and then cooperated when being loaded into the police vehicle, Rink said.
Applegate made an apology to his mother at the district courthouse.
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The 51-year-old is out on unsecured bail and currently not living with his mother.
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