Scion of troubled family back in court on DUI charge

A 22-year-old Delaware County man who accidentally killed his best friend during a 2006 underage drinking party waived his preliminary hearing Thursday morning on charges that he drunkenly drove his car into a Chester County garage on Thanksgiving.

Sean Owen O'Neill Jr. of Glen Mills, who appeared before District Judge William D. Kraut, narrowly avoided being hauled to prison in handcuffs. Kraut set bail at $10,000 cash, despite pleas from defense attorney Vincent P. DiFabio that O'Neill, who was accompanied by his mother, Eileen O'Neill, could not post it.

DiFabio, who has represented O'Neill since he accidentally shot and killed Scott Sheridan, a Cardinal O'Hara High School classmate, assured the judge that his client always shows up for court. He argued that 10 percent of $10,000 would be more appropriate.

The judge countered that the purpose of bail is not only to encourage appearances but also to "protect the community." After listening to Assistant District Attorney Marilyn Seide state that O'Neill had been on bail for a March 1, 2011, incident in Delaware County when he allegedly drove drunk in Chester County, Kraut said it was time to end O'Neill's pattern of infractions.

"Mr. O'Neill has been in the system a long time," Kraut said. "It's just time this stops."

O'Neill used a bail bonds agency to post the $10,000 and was released several hours after the hearing.

West Goshen Township police said O'Neill lost control of his black Cadillac at 12:55 a.m. Nov. 24, traveling down an embankment on Westtown Road, smashing into two cars, and then crashing into the garage of the house, police said. No one was injured, but O'Neill registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.258, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08, police said.

According to court records, O'Neill was charged a year ago with receiving stolen property, theft from a motor vehicle, open lewdness, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct in Delaware County.

DiFabio said the incident primarily involved the alleged theft of a license plate outside a Concord Township bar. He said the case was delayed several times, once because O'Neill, who is still using a crutch to walk, fractured his foot during a hiking accident.

O'Neill, who has been working for his family's construction business and attending Penn State's Delaware County campus, was scheduled to go to trial next week, DiFabio said. But a videotape purporting to show the crime is now missing, making the status of the case uncertain, DiFabio said.

O'Neill and his family have continued to make headlines ever since he was charged as an adult in the 2006 shooting death of Cardinal O'Hara High School classmate Scott Sheridan during an unchaperoned drinking party at the O'Neills' former Chester County home. DiFabio succeeded in getting the case moved to juvenile court, and O'Neill completed two residential treatment programs before being released in 2009.

The investigation into Sheridan's death involved a search of the family's Willistown Township home that led to a federal firearms conviction for O'Neill's father, Sean Owen O'Neill Sr., 51. The former Delaware County pub owner and developer, also an undocumented immigrant, was deported last year to Ireland after serving an 18-month prison sentence.

Another of the family's three children, Roisin O'Neill, 26, has also had brushes with the law. She is serving a 5-to-10-year prison term for causing a crash on Sept. 19, 2008, that killed Patricia Murphy Waggoner, 63, a grandmother from Brimfield, Mass. Police said Roisin O'Neill was driving drunk in the wrong direction on I-476 in Plymouth Township.