Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Less than a day after being sentenced to state prison, a Bensalem man who crashed his pickup truck into his ex-wife’s Falls Township home killed himself while behind bars.
A Bucks County spokesperson confirmed that Charles Joseph Freitag, 57, was found dead inside his prison cell Saturday morning at the county-operated correctional facility in Doylestown. He appeared to have killed himself.
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Last Friday, Freitag was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in state prison by Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons for a September 2017 incident where he slammed his pickup truck into his ex-wife’s home on Martha Circle in the Fallsington section of Falls Township. At the time, he resisted arrest and had slashed his wrists with a box cutter.
Freitag’s ex-wife and another person in the home were unhurt in the crash.
In June, Freitag was convicted by a jury of aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment during a two-day trial earlier this month, according to court records.
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County spokesperson Juliet Kelchner said Freitag’s death remained under investigation by the prison, county detectives, and the coroner’s office.
Freitag was under suicide watch at the prison. Freitag’s cell was in open view and a corrections officer checked on him every 30 minutes, Kelchner said.
Paul Lang, the attorney who represented Freitag on Friday, said his client suffered mental health issues and had undergoing treatment since the crash.
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Freitag, a 28-year postal employee, received a long sentence for a crime that did not leave anyone injured, Lang said, adding his client did not have a prior criminal history.
“The entire system failed him,” the attorney said.
