by peter e. bortner
After 13 years, Anthony M. Hasenauer said Thursday in Schuylkill County Court that he got tired of not being completely honest with his family about his past and decided to face justice.
"I can't be a hypocrite to my kids anymore," Hasenauer, 36, of Elizabeth City, N.C., told Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin about his decision to return to Pennsylvania to face two sets of charges stemming from incidents that occurred in January 1999.
Chief County Detective Dennis Clark said after the hearing that he was not certain if Hasenauer is the fugitive who had been on the run from the county the longest before being caught.
"We've had some long ones," he said. "It's pretty old, 13 years."
However, the first place Hasenauer went after Thursday's hearing was Schuylkill County Prison in order to serve a 90-day sentence for driving with a license that had been suspended for an alcohol-related reason.
"There was a hearing, a sentencing hearing," Dolbin told Hasenauer, who did not complain. "You have to start serving that."
In Hasenauer's other case, he is charged with driving under the influence. That charge still is pending before the county court.
Once Hasenauer completes his sentence on the suspended license charge, he will have to post $1,000 straight cash bail in the DUI case in order to be free pending further court action.
"I can't let you go," Dolbin told the defendant. "It took us 13 years to get you back."
The first time Hasenauer's DUI case could be tried is during the October criminal court term, which will begin Oct. 22 and run through Nov. 2.
In that case, state police allege that Hasenauer was DUI on Jan. 29, 1999, in North Manheim Township.
President Judge William E. Baldwin issued a bench warrant for Hasenauer on Aug. 24, 1999.
In the other case, state police charged Hasenauer with driving with the suspended license on the same date in North Manheim Township.
Magisterial District Judge David A. Plachko, Port Carbon, found Hasenauer guilty on May 26, 1999, but the defendant appealed that ruling on June 25, 1999.
Then, Judge Wilbur H. Rubright, now deceased, found Hasenauer guilty in absentia on July 16, 1999, and sentenced him on the same date.
Hasenauer told Dolbin that he had been living in North Carolina since 1999, and currently runs a men's group.
Clark said Hasenauer contacted his office about turning himself in.
