Loading ...Man Found Innocent in Bombing
Scott M. Daley may have threatened to kill his former boss, but he was found innocent Thursday of charges he dynamited the man’s Palm Harbor home.
After the verdict, Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer warned Daley to keep under control his anger and animosity toward Geren Moegerle, who fired Daley from his job as a funeral director at Curlew Hills Funeral Home in Palm Harbor in 1991.
“If I were you,” Judge Schaeffer told the Clearwater man in an unusual post-trial lecture, “I’d be careful and stay away from him (Moegerle), his house and his family. Because if anything happens to them, you’ll be the first suspect and you may find yourself right back here in this court.
“Losing your job is not worth the type of hostility you have shown toward Mr. Moegerle,” the judge said.
Moegerle’s home was dynamited Sept. 16 last year.
A jury of four men and two women took only about 20 minutes to decide on innocent verdicts on two counts against Daley: first-degree arson and discharging a destructive device. If convicted, he would have faced a maximum sentence on each count of 30 years in prison and a minimum sentence on the second charge of 10 years.
Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand of Clearwater didn’t dispute testimony by several witnesses that Daley had shown extreme animosity toward his former boss and had threatened to kill Moegerle and his family. But Brunvand said the prosecution had not proved Daley had bombed the house.
No testimony or evidence placed Daley at the scene of the crime when the explosion occurred.
“Yes, Scott Daley had animosity toward Geren Moegerle and he was out of control,” Brunvand said in his closing remarks in the two-day trial. “Scott Daley said some stupid things, but that does not mean he had anything to do with” the dynamiting.
“His statements were made in anger,” the defense attorney said. “They were stupid statements made by an Irishman who has a hot temper.”
After the verdicts were read, an elated Daley thanked the jury as it filed out of the courtroom, saying, “You are in my prayers. Thank you for the justice system.”
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Joe Bulone called Daley a “coward” for allegedly setting off a quarter stick of dynamite outside the master bedroom of Moegerle’s house at 3290 Sand Key Drive in Palm Harbor.
No one was injured, but the house was damaged and the bedroom was sprayed with broken glass.
Bulone cited testimony by several witnesses that indicated Daley “was obsessed with two things: getting even with Geren Moegerle and with dynamite.”
“His obsession with getting even with Moegerle began to eat away with him,” Bulone told the jury. “It got worse and worse. He said he hated Geren Moegerle and if he (Daley) ever got cancer, he would kill Moegerle and his family.”
Bulone also said witnesses had testified Daley had had sticks of dynamite, had tried to recruit a friend to blow up Moegerle’s home, and had tried to sell dynamite to friends.
And when threatened with arrest, Bulone said Daley told the arresting officer, “If I’m arrested for this, I’ll break out all of his (Moegerle’s) windows this time.” The prosecutor said these were “the words of the man who blew out the window.”
After the verdict, Daley agreed with Judge Schaeffer, who in her lecture told him, “You are a lucky young man.”
St. Petersburg Times – St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: Donald Finley