BY FRANK DELANO
A Westmoreland circuit judge today dropped all seven sex charges against Wayne DiRosario, a former Colonial Beach mayor and county supervisor.
Westmoreland Commonwealth’s Attorney Dean J. Atkins asked for the dismissals. He told the court that key witnesses against DiRosario, including an 8-year-old and two adults, were “not willing now to testify.”
A grand jury indicted DiRosario in October 2005. Six of the charges alleged rape and sexual molestation of minors and carried maximum sentences of life in prison. The charges dated from as early as 1991 to as recently as July 2005.
“I’ve been through 34 months of hell,” said DiRosario. “It’s a terrible thing to face charges like this when you know you’re not guilty.”
After seven postponements, a trial on one of the charges had been scheduled for July. A hearing had been scheduled later this month on a defense motion to disallow an interview given almost three years ago by the now 8-year-old child.
Today’s hearing before Judge Harry T. Taliaferro III in Warsaw was scheduled on short notice to allow DiRosario to take a job out of state, Atkins said.
DiRosario’s attorney, William J. Dinkin of Richmond, said DiRosario had been offered a job in Florida inspecting the catches of fishing boats. DiRosario has been free on a $75,000 bond since his arrest in 2005.
Dinkin said DiRosario still faces a child-abuse hearing at the Westmoreland Department of Social Services relative to one of the charges dropped Tuesday.
DiRosario served as a councilman in Colonial Beach from 1980–84 and as mayor from 1984–88. He served as a Westmoreland County supervisor from 1992–2004. He was defeated by John Maguire in 2003.
In 2007, DiRosario received 54 votes in an unsuccessful attempt to regain his seat as a county supervisor.
Frank Delano: 804/333-3834
fpdelano@gmail.com