Judge Calls Family Man Turned Robber A ‘Pill-Popping Junkie’

A Falls Township man who turned to robbery to fund his opioid addiction was sentenced Friday to three to six years in state prison, followed by 20 years of consecutive probation.

Joseph DiVergigelis, 50,  pleaded guilty on Oct. 25 to four counts of robbery, all first-degree felonies. DiVergigelis was arrested by Falls police back in January 2016 and charged with robbing four local businesses during a two month span.

According to court record, DiVergigelis pleaded guilty to robbing the Sports Authority store on East Lincoln Highway in Middletown on November 15, 2015, a Pet Valu store on Oxford Valley Road in Bristol Township two weeks later, a 7-Eleven store on Veterans Highway in Middletown on December 29, 2015, and a Sunoco station on New Falls Road in Falls Township on January 7, 2016. DiVergigelis wore a black wig and fled in a red pickup truck.

“In reality, I think the arrest saved his life,” Defense Attorney Jack McMahon told Bucks County Senior Judge Albert J. Cepparulo, who blamed the crimes on DiVergigelis’ addiction to opioid painkillers. “He was on a death spiral that needed some immediate intervention.”

According to a presentencing report, at the height of his addiction, DiVergigelis was taking four 80-milligram OxyContin pills per day, at a daily cost of $150, supplemented by sporadic use of Percocet, muscle relaxers and Adderal.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Gannon argued that DiVergigelis was far from destitute, and that he had committed the robberies to conceal his drug addiction from his family by not plundering their assets. He robbed, Gannon said, “not to feed an addiction, but so that he could keep silent his addiction.”

One week after the fourth robbery, Falls police Cpl. Joseph Coffman noticed a red Dodge Ram truck matching the description of the vehicle linked to the latter two robberies parked outside of DiVergigelis’ house on Tanglewood Lane.  A subsequent search of the truck turned up a gun, a black wig, a mask and other evidence concealed under the hood of the truck.

The items hidden under the hood indicated “that you were intending to do this time and time again,” Cepparulo told the defendant, at one point referring to DiVergigelis as “a pill-popping junkie.”

According to officials, half of the courtroom was packed with family members and friends of DiVergigelis, many of whom attested to the man’s good character; including Bristol Township Council member Howard Allen.

DiVergigelis apologized to the robbery victims and to his family, saying he was “ashamed and embarrassed by what I did. I hurt them along with my family.” He asked Cepparulo to sentence him to a prison that has recovery programs for him.

Before imposing the sentence, Cepparulo had harsh words for the defendant, suggesting that he had not fully taken responsibility for his crimes.

“One thing that struck me was everybody calling this a mistake,” the judge said. “This wasn’t a mistake. This was an intentional act.”

The judge said that if DiVergigelis has no misconducts during his first year in prison, he would recommend that he be allowed to serve his remaining time in a therapeutic community.