Involuntary manslaughter case dropped against 911 dispatcher in Pennsylvania woman's death

Prosecutors this week dropped an involuntary manslaughter case against a 911 dispatcher in Pennsylvania who had been accused of failing to send an ambulance to the rural home of a woman who was found dead a day later of internal bleeding.

Greene County District Attorney Brianna Vanata said she acted to end the case against Leon “Lee” Price after reviewing an investigator's report that said he felt charges were not justified in the July 2020 death of 54-year-old Diania Kronk.

“There was just no criminal culpability here,” Vanata said in a phone interview Thursday. She said the decision to pursue charges two years after Kronk died — and shortly after her family filed a lawsuit over it — was a mistake by the then-district attorney, Dave Russo.

“I’m not sure what the previous district attorney was thinking,” Vanata said. “That's where I'm at.”

Price's defense lawyer, Timothy Ross, said Thursday the charges had been a stressful ordeal for his client, who he described as an upstanding employee who had consistently maintained he was innocent of the allegations. In the wake of Kronk's death, Ross said, an investigator had told Price he would not be charged.

Ross said Price is “moving forward, rebuilding his reputation in this community and just happy to put these charges behind him.”

Investigators had said Price was reluctant to dispatch help without getting more assurances Kronk would actually go to the hospital.

Vanata said she based her decision on an August 2020 memo by Greene County Regional Police Chief Zachary Sams that said Price may not have been trained properly and the investigator felt Price's actions did not “rise to the levels necessary to facilitate a criminal charge.”

On a recording, Price was heard questioning