Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Lawyer cites Nevada arrest

Violence case puts focus on victim's friend, he says

By CHRIS A. COUROGEN

Rochelle Laudenslager's attorney says he suspects police investigating the death of a Perry County woman have "focused" on his client because Nevada police charged her with domestic violence in October.

Laudenslager, whose Lower Paxton Twp. home was searched by police on Sunday, was among the searchers who discovered Elaine Pierson's body Saturday on Blue Mountain in Perry County. Officials have not released the cause of Pierson's death but have ruled the case a homicide.

Laudenslager, 45, of the 6200 block of Spring Knoll Drive, was charged in October with domestic battery, a misdemeanor, after Reno, Nev., police responded to a report of a woman armed with a frying pan at the home of Laudenslager's sister, Carol D. Koletar-McMillan, Reno police spokesman Steve Frady said yesterday.

Efforts yesterday to determine the outcome of the charges were not successful. The disposition was not listed on the Reno police report, Frady said.

Laudenslager has not been charged in connection with Pierson's death, and state police have declined to call her a suspect. Under state law, they were required to show probable cause to obtain warrants for Sunday's searches of Laudenslager's home and cars and her mother's home. That part of the warrant has been sealed by Dauphin County Court.

The search warrants said state police were looking for evidence related to firearms and ammunition, plus other items.

Laudenslager's Harrisburg attorney, George Matangos, confirmed the Reno charge but declined to discuss the Sunday searches.

"With a sealed affidavit, I don't have anything to say because I don't know anything," Matangos said yesterday. "I have met with Miss Laudenslager and discussed what has occurred up to this point. I'm fairly confident given the circumstances and what I know at this point, their investigation will lead elsewhere."

He said Laudenslager has told him about the Reno incident, in which she allegedly struck her sister on the head while she slept.

"That is obviously one of the reasons they focused on Miss Laudenslager, but I am confident the focus will have to go elsewhere to find who killed Miss Pierson," Matangos said.

State police Sgt. Charles Ringer would not comment on the Reno incident or say if police were looking at others in connection with Pierson's death.

A Reno police report states that Koletar-McMillan was asleep in her bedroom when she was awakened by a blow to the left side of her head. Koletar-McMillan looked up and saw Laudenslager standing over her, police spokesman Frady said.

He said ambulance personnel treated Koletar-McMillan at the scene.

Laudenslager said she heard her sister scream and went into the bedroom to check on her, according to the Reno police report. She denied striking her sister, telling police she found both the inside door to the garage from the home and the outside garage door open.

Laudenslager's mother confirmed the altercation.

"There was a little bit of an episode out in Reno. That was just between the sisters. They had some kind of a little squabble," Betty Laudenslager of Gratz said yesterday.

Rochelle Laudenslager received inpatient care after the incident, Betty Laudenslager said.

Washoe County, Nev., court records indicate Laudenslager was involuntarily committed to West Hills Hospital in October and was discharged Nov. 1. Additional details were not available, but according to West Hills' Web site, the Reno hospital provides "a full range of behavioral health care services."

"She was in the hospital out there for a while," her mother said. "A couple of weeks, I guess it was. For stress mostly."

Frady declined to comment on Laudenslager's hospitalization, citing federal privacy laws.

Laudenslager, who is director of Western Regional Professional Services for Highmark Inc., graduated from Upper Dauphin High School and was a four-year letter winner in basketball at Georgia Tech. Her college coach, Bernadette McGlade, remembers Laudenslager as a "hard worker" and "extremely dedicated."

"She was a great person, one of our team captains. That tells you what kind of a leader she was," McGlade said.

Betty Laudenslager said her daughter and Pierson once lived together. Pierson had been missing for more than a week when Laudenslager and other searchers found her body Saturday at the bottom of an embankment off Idle Road, about three miles from Pierson's Rye Twp. home.

She was reported missing on Dec. 29.

Perry County Coroner Michael Shalonis confirmed the identity of the body yesterday after a dental comparison.

CHRIS A. COUROGEN: 255-8112 or ccourogen @patriot-news.com

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