Christopher M. Riedlinger

I was being charged for assault against my daughter. Which besides bad judgment of letting her live with me, I was guilty of nothing. I was given Attorney Reidlinger as a public defender. He gave me no hope of winning a case, that was not hard. I had just moved to SchyukillCounty and the police did n...ot ever have any knowledge of our past which was very volatile. She had assaulted me, teachers, police officers, juvenile probation officers, even a social worker was kicked in the stomach while healing from a hysterectomy at a facility the Court had placed her. This day she assaulted me and spit on me. I did nothing but tell her I was going to throw her out. My girlfriend at the time was holding our 18month old daughter. SHE (the girlfriend) apparently slapped my older daughter. When I turned I saw my older daughter attacking towards them. I restrained her. She pretended to go into a seizure, when I put my finger in her mouth to hold her tongue, she bit me to the bone. I had to force her to release my finger that she bit to the bone by prying her mouth open. She left and was covered in my blood. She went to the police and told them I attacked her unprovoked. I was arrested and arraigned. I never saw this Attorney till I stood in front of the magistrate. He never opened his mouth. After the hearing he told me that this was not television, lawyers don't perform like that. I told him the story while his paralegal was hitting on my girlfriend. The paralegal mocked me even making faces. I immediately drove to the public defenders office and asked for a new lawyer. They refused. So I decided to fire him, I would defend myself. I could not afford a real attorney because of the costs I incurred to the prior mentioned problems with my daughter. He called me one time. I threatened to fire him in front of the Jury. Trial came and he showed up. He said the DA would reduce this to disorderly. I'm sure he had nothing to do with that. Or because he might have thought I would make good on my promise. But panic set in and I agreed. The fine was reduced to a 400 fine. If that is what you want to go through, have at it and good luck. -