A Tamaqua woman who was found guilty by a jury of criminal trespass and defiant trespass in the borough tried to strangle herself after her sentencing last week in Schuylkill County court.

Judith Vacula, 50, was sentenced to 1 month to 23 months confinement in the Schuylkill County Prison by Common Pleas Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin. He granted her immediate parole after one month. A mental health treatment was ordered.

Vacula sat at the defense table and began talking to herself.

“I want to go to the hospital,” she said.

At one point she used her gray scarf to attempt to strangle herself while seated, before Chief Deputy Brian Tobin cut it with a knife.

Her attorney William Burke said, “I knew something bad was going to happen, but I didn’t expect that.”

Sheriff Joe Groody and four deputies were in the courtroom and placed handcuffs on Vacula and put her in a wheelchair. She was then taken to the prison in the back of a sheriff’s vehicle. Once again, she tried to harm herself.

Burke said in his 32 years of practicing law such an occurrence had not happened to a client he was representing.

“I don’t think incarceration is warranted, your honor,” he told Dolbin at the sentencing.

Burke asked for probation, adding mental health treatment would help.

“She does not have a past criminal history,” he said.

First Assistant District Attorney Mike Stine sought jail time. He said if Vacula hadn’t disobeyed the court and returned to the 237 E. Broad St. property then they would have sought probation.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Foose prosecuted the case.

“I think the court’s sentence was appropriate for her. I believe that jail time was appropriate in order to send a message to her,” she said.

Foose acknowledged mental health issues. “They will be addressed through an evaluation but it goes back to the fact that a crime was committed and she continued to commit crimes after she was ordered to stay out of there, and that required jail time,” Foose said.

Dolbin weighed many factors in the sentencing, including her “lack of remorse” for what she was found guilty of, he said.

Court case

A jury in October found Vacula guilty of a charge of criminal trespass and two counts of defiant trespass for a Feb. 3 incident. Tamaqua Police found her at a condemned property at 237 E. Broad St. She had previously been told not to go there.

Police found Vacula in her car with a sign saying she would be willingly arrested and would remain silent.

A former borough code official, a Tamaqua Police officer and a former borough officer testified at trial. The code official said the property was condemned for lack of heat, water and electricity.

Council member Brian Connely said numerous borough officials have spent time regarding this situation.

“It’s taxing to our community. It really is,” Connely said.

In a recent court filing, Tamaqua Police charged Vacula with 10 counts of criminal trespass. A letter was sent to Vacula on March 3 saying she was not permitted on the property. On five occasions after the letter was sent, Vacula was allegedly on the property, the latest in November, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

She went to the borough building Nov. 23 complaining she needs the building to not be condemned.

Water is delivered to the house and a generator provides heat and electricity. A preliminary hearing is set for 10:40 a.m. Dec. 21 in Magisterial District Judge Stephen Bayer’s courtroom in Tamaqua.