Credit: Police
After a more than a day of deliberating, a Middletown man was found guilty of several crimes by a jury last Friday in connection with an assault and arson.
Patrick Mongeau, 50, was found guilty of arson, reckless burning, criminal mischief, stalking, recklessly endangerment and simple assault. A jury did not find him guilty on two additional counts of arson, possessing an instrument of crime and theft.
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Bucks County Deputy District Antonetta Stancu said Mongeau’s verdict came after days of trial and a “very long day of deliberating.”
Mongeau, according to police accounts, assaulted his on-and-off again girlfriend at the Penn Warner property in Falls Township. in spring 2014. After a verbal and physical altercation, Mongeau threatened to kill the woman and a man she was with. Falls police responded but Mongeau was already gone from the scene.
A few hours later, Mongeau went to the woman’s house on Quaker Hill Road in Middletown’s Levittown section. He doused a motorcycle and other items with gasoline and lit it on fire, police said.
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The smoldering fire damage was found around 8 a.m. and investigators were called to the Middletown house.
A probe by the Middletown Fire Marshal’s Office determined the blaze, which damaged the house and motorcycle cover, was an arson, according to court papers. Investigators found gasoline was poured in the backyard, a fence, around the motorcycle and over a fire pit. A match that is believed to have triggered the fire was also found.
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The woman’s children were inside the house sleeping at the time of the fire, police said.
During an interview at the police station, Middletown Detective David Strother noted Mongeau’s shoe smelled of gasoline.
Mongeau’s ex-girlfriend said she kicked him out of her house in September 2013 and said he has been continually harassing her since, according to court papers. Middletown police records show they responded to domestic incidents and threats nine times since 2012.
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Sentencing for Mongeau has been deferred, Stancu said.
