Friend's heroin overdose leads to charges against pair
Published: June 19, 2012
Two 19-year-old men
drove around the Sugarloaf valley for an hour Monday with an
unresponsive friend who overdosed on heroin and needed medical
attention, police said.
Kyle Andrew Yatsko of Roth Road, Drums,
and Robert Nicholas Pupko III, of North Street, Kelayres, told Sugarloaf
police they did not know what to do when their friend Ryan Kline passed
out.
Yatsko and Pupko were charged Monday with recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor.
According
to court documents, Pupko picked up Kline at his Sugarloaf home in
Brookhill on Monday. A short time later, Kline passed out from an
overdose. Pupko took Kline to Yatsko's home, where they tried
unsuccessfully to revive him, police said. The teenagers took Kline to a
creek near Walp Road to put water on his face in another attempt to
revive him, but were again unsuccessful, they told police.
A
person in the area of Walp Road called Luzerne County 911 around 1 p.m.,
stating two young men were dragging an unresponsive man from the woods,
an affidavit of probable cause said.
When police arrived at Walp
and Kisenweather roads, they saw a Jeep parked along the woods with
Pupko in the driver's seat, Kline passed out in the front passenger seat
and Yatsko in the rear passenger seat.
Kline was slumped over and appeared to be gasping for air, police said.
When
police asked what was wrong with Kline, Pupko said, "Nothing. He is
just sleeping," the affidavit states. Police said Kline was
unresponsive, barely breathing and his face was turning blue.
Yatsko and Pupko told police they knew Kline was "dying" but did not call for help because they did not know what to do.
Sugarloaf
Township Fire Chief Duane Hildebrand said an unresponsive Kline was
treated at the scene by Sugarloaf Ambulance and transported to a
helicopter landing zone near the Pilot Travel Center on state Route 93
in Sugarloaf. Kline was flown to an area trauma center. Information on
Kline's condition and age were not available Monday night.
Police
said Pupko displayed signs of driving while under the influence of a
controlled substance and was given a field sobriety test, which he
failed. He admitted to taking the prescriptions drug Xanax the night
prior and smoking marijuana, the affidavit states. Pupko was taken to
Hazleton General Hospital for a blood test for suspicion of driving
under the influence of a controlled substance. Charges are pending
against him for the suspected DUI offense, police said.
Yatsko and
Pupko were arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Daniel O'Donnell
at district court in Sugarloaf Township. Bail was set at $10,000
unsecured each, meaning they did not have to post money in order to be
released to await preliminary hearings. Once bail was set, Sugarloaf
police removed the handcuffs that shackled both men's hands during the
preliminary arraignment. Among the conditions for bail, neither man may
contact the victim and both must attend all scheduled court appearances.
If they disregard the conditions, the men could be remanded to prison
and be ordered to pay the $10,000 bail, O'Donnell said.
Representing
the men at arraignment, attorney James Scallion asked the judge for
unsecured bail because, he said, both are young and, because of their
inexperience, made a "poor choice." Neither are "hardened criminals,"
Scallion said.
achristman@standardspeaker.com