A South Carolina man pleaded guilty Friday to assaulting to state troopers in the backyard of a Mt. Pleasant Township home with a giant seashell.
Police said two officers sustained mild injuries when they were attacked while responding to a call from neighbors Aug. 31, 2022, about a naked man who was standing on a tree stump in a Cummings Road yard with a seashell held up to his ear.
Sam T. Coffey pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, resisting arrest and open lewdness. Disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and trespassing charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
Police said it appeared Coffey randomly drove up to the property, which he did not own or have any connection to.
Police approached Coffey as he attempted to jam the shell into his buttocks and then used it to inflict injuries to his face before he threw rocks at the troopers, according to court records.
Coffey screamed and yelled, then hit one trooper with the shell and bit another in the arm as they attempted to subdue him multiple times with a Taser, police said.
Coffey told the judge he has since completed mental health and drug and alcohol treatment and would return home to South Carolina. He had a Vermont address at the time of his arrest, according to court records.
“It’s a fair deal,” Coffey said.
Coffey’s lawyer, assistant public defender James Spriestersbach, declined comment following the guilty plea hearing.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears sentenced Coffey to serve up to 23 months in jail but paroled him after giving him credit for 147 days he spent behind bars after his arrest. Coffey was released from jail in early January 2023 on an unsecured $25,000 bond.
