Leon Price: 911 dispatcher and 3 others charged for REFUSING to send help to woman who bled to death
Update: Three more people have now been charged along with Pennsylvania 911 operator Leon Lee Price accused of failing to send an ambulance to the home of a woman who died of internal bleeding about a day later. The complaint states that the three men were charged Monday, July 18, with tampering with public records, tampering with or fabricating evidence and obstruction. They are or were managers for Greene County’s emergency management. According to the criminal complaint, the three conspired to “knowingly and purposefully conceal, withhold, omit, obstruct or pervert the release of documents” to investigators. Allegedly, they did not provide policy memo binders that detail standard operating procedures.
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GREENE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: Leon Price, a Pennsylvania 911 dispatcher is being charged for his failure to send help on time and as a result of his alleged refusal to send an ambulance, the caller's mom died. The incident took place in July 2020. Kelly Titchenell called 911 when her 54-year-old mother, Diania Kronk was suffering after days of heavy drinking. She requested medical assistance from the Pennsylvania dispatcher: “She’s going to die without immediate help," she had implored.
The dispatcher, however, instead of cooperating, asked Titchenell if her mother would be willing to be taken to a hospital a half an hour away from her home in Sycamore. Titchenell explained that “We really need to make sure she’s willing to go.” According to Associated Press, she told Price, “She will be, ’cause I’m on my way there, so she’s going, or she’s going to die,” as she drove from her home in Mather.
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Who is Leon Price?
A Greene County detective in July first week filed charges against Leon “Lee” Price, 50, of Waynesburg, in the July 2020 death of Kronk. Price was also charged with reckless endangerment, official oppression and obstruction. In the 4-minute call, he showed his reluctance to help Titchenell and continuously questioned her whether Kronk would agree to be taken for treatment. Price's repeated inquiries made Titchenell reply: “OK, well, can we just try?” After Titchenell told Price she was about 10 minutes from her mother’s home, Price asked if Titchenell would call 911 back once she made sure Kronk was willing to go in an ambulance. “I’m sorry,” Titchenell said, and Price replied: “No, don’t be sorry, ma’am. Just call me when you get out there, OK?”
Her mother died reportedly because of internal bleeding, a day after her daughter called the 911 dispatcher for help. “I believe in my heart that my mother would still be alive if he would have sent an ambulance,” said Titchenell, 38. “It shouldn’t have been his decision. He should have sent an ambulance and let the professionals decide if she should go to the hospital or not.” Price was arraigned June 29 and released on bail.
Titchenell is suing Price, two 911 supervisors, and Greene County in federal court, accusing Price of “callous refusal of public emergency medical services.” She claimed that when she arrived at her mother's home along with her three children, she found her mother naked on the front porch and got her mother to put her on a robe. Kronk was speaking to her daughter in a muddled and unintelligible manner at that time. “She just kept saying she was OK, she’s fine,” Titchenell said. No service and inability to locate her mom's landline phone meant she could not call 911 further. She had also been expecting her uncle to check in on them so it made her believe that another contact with 911 would be pointless. Titchenell was livid at the 911 worker: “This is unheard of, to me. I mean, they’ll send an ambulance for anything. And here I am telling this guy that my mom’s going to die. It’s, like, her death, and she doesn’t get an ambulance.” Her brother was the first person to find her mother dead on the very next day.
Charges against 911 dispatchers rare
John Kelly, an Illinois lawyer and also a general counsel to the National Emergency Number Association, said these types of cases are rare but have happened previously. Greene County District Attorney Dave Russo said that the next month of the investigation should determine whether additional charges will be brought against Price or the county. “No one should be denied emergency services in Greene County or anywhere else,” he said. “Everyone should have equal protections and access to medical treatment.” Russo said he is also investigating whether there was any policy or training under which the county’s 911 dispatchers were allowed to refuse services to callers.
Marie Milie Jones, a lawyer for the county and 911 supervisors in the federal case, said her clients plan to vigorously defend the lawsuit and do not believe they are liable for Kronk’s death. She said there are “personnel matters that are ongoing” regarding Price but declined to elaborate, reports Fox 10.