Judge tosses alleged confession in attack on pregnant woman

Criminal: A judge tossed out the alleged confession of a woman accused of trying to cut a fetus from her neighbor's womb, ruling that police did not have enough evidence to take the defendant into custody at the scene.

Prosecutors have accused Peggy Jo Conner, 38, of attacking Valerie Oskin in Oct. 2005 with a baseball bat and then taking her to a secluded wooded area and slicing Oskin's belly in an attempt to cut the child from its mother.

Both Oskin, 30, and her son, delivered by emergency Caesarean, survived. Conner was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault on an unborn infant and related offenses.

Armstrong County Common Pleas Judge Kenneth Valasek, in a 32-page opinion given Thursday, said state troopers did not collect enough evidence at the scene to warrant taking Conner into custody.

"Simply because (Connor) was present with some blood on her clothes does not, by itself, constitute probable cause to effect a lawful arrest," Valasek wrote.

State troopers have testified that Conner was read her Miranda rights three times before she talked in detail with a trooper as he filled out paperwork about 12 hours after police said they found the two women in the woods.

By that time, Conner had been awake about 24 hours and without food while in police custody, defense attorney David DeFazio has said.

Conner has testified that she didn't feel she was free to leave the police barracks until she gave the final statement. She said troopers pounded on a table and cursed at her.

"I was told if I wasn't guilty then I didn't need a lawyer," Conner has said.

Armstrong County District Attorney Scott Andreassi said the case could go forward without the alleged statements.