Rough-on-nannies Main Liner is trading jail for mental facility

After six weeks in jail, can convicted Main Line nanny-smacker Susan Tabas Tepper get her act together and leave the household help alone? We may not know until next May.

The two nanny attacks that got Tepper arrested occurred near the late-May anniversary of a traumatic event in her life, Tepper's attorney said Tuesday, and she'll be getting court-ordered mental-health treatment soon.

"She's really a nice lady," attorney Marc Steinberg said. "She's a pleasure to be with. She's bright, she's intelligent."

But Steinberg said psychologists who examined Tepper in a Montgomery County jail were convinced her violent behavior toward domestics was related to memories of a troubling event he declined to describe.

"It's like an anniversary syndrome, and that's why it happened," Steinberg said.

Tepper reports to an in-patient mental-health facility tomorrow for 30 days of treatment, one of the conditions that got her out of jail. She was arrested May 23 for roughing up nanny Urszula Kordzior and shoving her 9-year-old daughter to the ground.

Tepper was jailed immediately then because the fracas violated terms of her probation from her conviction last year for hitting another nanny with a bag of carrots and a telephone handset.

Tepper, 44, is a wealthy former president of the Philadelphia Polo Club who employed several domestics at her 7-acre Villanova estate to help care for her four children.

Under an agreement with prosecutors, Tepper pleaded guilty Tuesday to harassment charges stemming from the most recent incident, and assault charges were dropped.

Assistant District Attorney John Gradel said the plea agreement fits the facts.

"There was no injury to the child, and the only injury to the nanny was basically a scratch," Gradel said, adding that the most important thing was that Tepper get help that will prevent a repeat of her behavior.

"She's just not right in the head, and we're going to give her the opportunity to receive the type of treatment that the defense claims she's in dire need of," Gradel said. "So I think it's in everyone's best interest that we at least give her the opportunity to straighten her act out."

Tepper faces sentencing for the harassment charge and violation of her probation from last year's incident after she completes her 30-day mental-health treatment.

She could get up to a year and a half, Grader said, or avoid further jail time.

"No matter what happens, she's going to be under supervision for the next year and a half," Grader said. "So there will be a strong incentive to be a law-abiding citizen again."

But another legal battle looms for Tepper, and it may generate information that undermines the notion that her misbehavior is a once-a-year phenomenon.

Xiomara Salinas, the victim of Tepper's 2006 nanny assault, has filed a civil suit charging the physical attack was "the culmination of a pattern of abusive conduct."

Salinas' attorney, Marc Vitale, said Tuesday that "as part of discovery we'll look at whether this extended to other victims."

Tepper seemed untroubled by that or other challenges as she appeared in court Tuesday, having arrived on a standard prisoner bus from the Montgomery County jail in Norristown.

She appeared relaxed and comfortable in a cranberry jacket and black pants, answering questions about her guilty plea in a clear voice. Her attorney noted that sometimes jail life is less stressful than coping with life's daily pressures.

"She found the prison to be very well run," Steinberg said. "She said she thought that the people were very nice and she thought it was very well-organized and run." *