SUNBURY - A former Mount Carmel Township police officer accused of threatening to kill himself and his family in July won't spend any time in jail for the incident.
Shane Joseph Geary, 29, of South Chestnut Street, Mount Carmel, pleaded no contest Monday to recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct before Northumberland County President Judge William H. Wiest. He was sentenced to one year supervised probation and ordered to pay fines totaling $350 plus costs and undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
Multiple additional charges, including terroristic threats, were withdrawn under the plea agreement.
By pleading no contest, Geary is not admitting nor denying guilty, but acknowledges enough evidence exists that could result in him being found guilty at a trial.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Toomey said the defendant's father, Don Geary, one of the victims in the case, agreed to the probation sentence.
Prior to imposing sentence, Wiest told Geary he is fortunate his family recommended a lighter sentence despite the seriousness of the charges.
Geary, who was represented by county public defender Paige Rosini, was charged by Mount Carmel Township police with fighting and threatening the lives of himself and his family, including his mother and father, Don and Ann Marie Geary, while at their house in Shady Acres in the early morning hours of July 7.
His father told police Geary was highly intoxicated at the time, and that he threatened to get a gun before storming out of the house. The family locked the doors and called 9-1-1. Geary was found a short time later hiding in bushes near the home.
Don Geary is a retired police chief of Mount Carmel Township, where Shane Geary had once been a police officer.