A 31-year-old Skippack Township man will serve 2 to 23 months in Montgomery County jail after a jury convicted him of choking his girlfriend until she blacked out during an hours-long assault in Perkiomen Township. Austin Jorge Crawford was also ordered to pay $17,470 in restitution for the woman's medical expenses and must complete a domestic violence counseling program, but he remains eligible for a work release program that could allow him to leave jail for his job.
According to The Reporter, the assault happened on July 8, 2023, at Crawford's former residence in the 900 block of Hamilton Road, after he became agitated during the evening of July 7 and into the early morning hours. Prosecutors alleged Crawford kicked and punched the woman, kicking her in the lower back, stomach and torso, and pushed her to the floor. He also broke down a bedroom door after she locked herself inside, poured beverages on her, threw dirt from a potted plant on her, and threw multiple objects throughout the residence, the outlet reports.
The woman testified that Crawford used her own necklace to strangle her until she passed out. “I was barely breathing. Everything went black,” she said, according to the same account. The strangulation caused her to vomit, and her injuries included swelling, bruising, scratches and skin indentations. The assault reportedly ceased only when a relative of Crawford's arrived at the residence at 1:45 a.m. on July 8, and the woman later reported the attack at the state police barracks in Skippack.
Split Verdict Spares Crawford the Felony Charge
A jury deliberated for about three hours in June before returning a split verdict, finding Crawford guilty of misdemeanor simple assault but acquitting him of felony strangulation. Jurors determined that Crawford attempted to cause or knowingly or recklessly caused bodily injury, satisfying the assault charge, per the report.
The strangulation charge Crawford avoided was created under a Pennsylvania law passed in 2016 specifically to treat non-fatal choking in domestic settings as a second-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, without requiring proof of visible injury, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The coalition's research also identifies non-fatal strangulation as one of the most lethal forms of domestic abuse and a major statistical predictor of future homicide in intimate partner violence cases. Simple assault, by contrast, is a second-degree misdemeanor carrying a maximum of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine under state law, per the SKA Law Group. According to a 2020 Pennsylvania Superior Court decision identified by the Judicial System of Pennsylvania, the first-degree and second-degree felony grades under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2718 each require proof of one additional element.
Prosecutor Says Assault ‘Shattered’ Victim's Trust
Assistant District Attorney Anne O'Connell had argued for 3 to 23 months in jail, telling the court that incarceration was appropriate because the assault shattered the victim's ability to trust others. The woman told the court, “I was assaulted for several hours. This case has affected every part of my life, both physical and mental,” and she reported ongoing post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and night sweats tied to the attack, the outlet notes.
Judge William R. Carpenter, who ultimately imposed the 2-to-23-month sentence, called it “a very violent, ongoing offense,” adding, “There was no reason for this to happen.” Crawford did not address the judge or express remorse before sentencing, and he declined to comment to a reporter as he was escorted from Montgomery County court to begin serving his term, per the same reporting.
Defense Cited Clean Record, and a Sitting Judge Vouched for Him
Defense lawyer Francis John Genovese argued for a less restrictive sentence including work release, telling the court Crawford does not present any future danger to the woman. Genovese pointed to Crawford's lack of any prior criminal history and his steady employment at a landscaping business in Paoli, where he reportedly found his wallet, as evidence of his character, the report states.
Notably, Magisterial District Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar told the court that Crawford's conduct was out of character, vouching for his good character during the proceeding. That endorsement sits in tension with Pennsylvania's own judicial ethics rules: under Rule 1701(e) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration and Rule 3.3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, active judges are generally barred from voluntarily testifying as character witnesses or offering character statements in court proceedings without a Supreme Court subpoena, according to Cornell Law School. Rebar, first elected in 2009, serves as the elected judge for Montgomery County Magisterial District 38-1-20 covering Collegeville, Trappe, Lower Providence and parts of Upper Providence, and works as Northeast Regional Managing Partner at the law firm Tyson & Mendes. It is not stated in available reporting whether she was formally subpoenaed to testify.
What Work Release and Restitution Will Require
Crawford is barred from any contact with the woman going forward. He is eligible for the jail's work release program, which permits sentenced offenders to leave confinement only for verified employment and other court-approved purposes, and can include electronic monitoring. Montgomery County Correctional Facility officials, located on Eagleville Road in Lower Providence Township, will determine whether Crawford actually meets the criteria for that program. According to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania compliance-monitoring materials, adult jails are county-operated facilities whose administrative personnel report to county commissioners.
Any violation of work release terms would require Crawford to serve the remainder of his sentence confined in jail. The $17,470 restitution order takes statutory priority over court costs and fines under Pennsylvania law, according to FindLaw, which explains that restitution is meant to directly compensate crime victims for medical costs stemming from their injuries. Montgomery County courts have previously leaned on electronic monitoring and house arrest as alternatives that let offenders keep working while still supervising their sentences, per WHYY.
The case was originally filed by Pennsylvania State Police at the Skippack barracks before moving through the Montgomery County court system to sentencing in Norristown. Statewide, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence has reported that one in four women experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner, with police across Pennsylvania fielding thousands of domestic disturbance calls daily, according to Ciccarelli Law Offices.
