North Huntingdon man acquitted of strangulation charge

A North Huntingdon man was found not guilty Tuesday of charges he tried to strangle his 13-year-old daughter during a confrontation last year at his former home in Latrobe.

After two hours of deliberations, a Westmoreland County jury found Samuel Farrier, 46, guilty of one lesser, misdemeanor count of simple assault for an injury sustained by his 11-year-old daughter during the same Feb. 9, 2018 incident.

Prosecutors contended Farrier became violent when his estranged children hid from him as he attempted to take his younger daughter for a scheduled visit at his home.

Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Calisti said she will ask Westmoreland County Judge Tim Krieger to impose a short jail term when Farrier is sentenced in about three months.

Farrier declined to comment as he left the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon.

In court earlier in the day, Farrier testified his daughters lied about the incident, that he never became physical with them and only entered his former home at the request of his former wife, who asked that he pick up his daughter because she was out and unable to do so.

Farrier told jurors his older daughter became combative as he drove up to the home, ordered him away and threatened to call the police. He testified he entered the house through an unlocked door, went upstairs and lifted up a mattress, where his younger daughter and a friend were hiding. He then turned to his older daughter, put his hand on her shoulder and demanded she give him her cellphone as punishment for poor behavior.

“I said she can’t talk to me like that because I’m her father,” Farrier testified. He told jurors he then left the residence, waited outside in his truck for his former wife to return, then went home.

Both daughters testified against their father on Monday. The older girl claimed Farrier put his hands around her throat and applied pressure that prevented her from breathing. His younger daughter told jurors her father hit her in the nose, possibly as an accident, as he moved to attack her sister.

Farrier testified that he has struggled with the estrangement from his daughters following the breakup of his 25-year marriage to their mother.

“One day they loved me, then, the next day, they hate me. It’s hard,” Farrier testified.