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Heat-death charges considered

The four Bucks and Montco victims were under treatment for mental issues. County prosecutors are investigating.

The recent heat deaths of several men under treatment for mental issues in Philadelphia's suburbs are being criminally investigated, prosecutors in Bucks and Montgomery County said Thursday.

The hyperthermia death Saturday of Bryan Nevins, an autistic man who died after five hours in a parked van at Woods Services near Langhorne, could amount to involuntary manslaughter, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said Thursday.

Nevins, 20, had the mental ability of a 2-year-old, according to his mother. He had been left behind in the van after a trip to Sesame Place.

Heckler said no decision on charges was likely before next week. Other possible charges include reckless endangerment of another person or neglect of a care-dependent person.

"I believe that someone who takes on the responsibility of caring - typically it's for another person's child, in this case, for a care-dependent adult - should be held to a high standard for how that care is provided," Heckler said.

In Montgomery County, a criminal investigation into the deaths of three men from the searing weather is in its early stages, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said. He would not discuss which charges might apply.

Jerry Snavely, 62, and his friend John Malkasian, 53, were found dead by a landlord July 9 in Snavely's Norristown apartment. Both died of hyperthermia in the stifling apartment, which the landlord and a neighbor said always had closed windows.

Malkasian was found in one bedroom, lying on the floor with several soda bottles at his feet, according to the police report. Snavely was in the rear bedroom in a kneeling position, his head resting between the bed and end table. The temperature in the apartment when they were found was 110 degrees.

Both men received services from the county's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Agency administrator Eric Goldstein has declined to discuss what care they received, citing confidentiality rules.

During two county-declared "code red" periods of extreme summer heat, Goldstein said, his office alerted agency staff and contractors to make sure clients were safe. He said 500 patients had been contacted out of 4,000 served by the agency. He did not know if both men had been contacted.

A third Montgomery County man who died from the heat, John Snyder, 56, of Pennsburg, was also believed to be receiving mental-health treatment before his death was discovered July 12, coroner Walter Hofman said.

Snyder was schizophrenic and living in a rooming home, said his half-sister, Doreen Ziegler, of Green Lane. She said he had received periodic visits from a caseworker but was unsure if he had been monitored during the heat waves.

She described her half-brother as sweet and gentle, a retired Navy officer interested in bodybuilding. "As long as he took his medication he was never violent. He was a really good guy," she said.

Ziegler wondered whether the medication may have impaired Snyder's ability to deal with the heat. Studies have shown that antipsychotic medications can affect a person's perception of temperature.

A spokesman for the state Department of Public Welfare, which oversees Montgomery County's mental-health agency, said the state was trying to determine what county supervision or treatment the three had been receiving. Any deaths under active supervision would trigger an investigation.

In front of Woods Services, several disability-rights groups gathered Thursday in Nevins' memory. A line of people, many in wheelchairs, crossed busy Maple Avenue for a memorial service that blocked the agency's exit.

Some in the crowd held up neon signs and chanted, drawing honks from passing cars. They held a moment of silence before laying down flowers and teddy bears in Nevins' memory.

John Crescendo of Bensalem, who founded the Alliance for Inclusive Education six years ago to advocate for in-home mental care, was there to protest Woods Services over Nevins' death.

"We don't want anyone else going in there until there's a full inquiry into what happened," Crescendo said. "I'd like to see an apology. You can't blame this on one person. I want to know who was managing. How much were these people being paid?"

Julie Spurri of Feasterville, a parent who relies on Woods Services, attended solely in memory of Nevins. Few facilities in the region, she said, can provide her 20-year-old son with the care he requires.

"There are issues that need to be addressed," she said, "but when he turns 21, I can take him home. I feel there's a chance for him, and they did that."