Bellefonte man who firebombed Centre County buildings receives maximum sentence
A Bellefonte man who firebombed two Centre County buildings was sentenced Thursday to the maximum prison time allowed by law.
Centre County Judge Jonathan Grine sentenced Dennis Hassinger, a man with a decadeslong feud with law enforcement, to 10-20 years in state prison.
Hassinger, 49, maintained his innocence during a nine-minute diatribe to Grine. He said he’s “traumatized” and “dumbfounded” by his convictions.
He was found guilty in September of three felony counts of arson. He threw Molotov cocktails on the county courthouse and sheriff’s building in October 2018 to avenge what he believes are wrongful convictions during the past 30 years.
Centre County Deputy District Attorney Sean McGraw called Hassinger a “serious, incorrigible danger to the public” in a 120-page pre-sentence memo.
“He is remorseless,” McGraw wrote. “He has proven totally resistant to rehabilitation during the entirety of his 30-year criminal history; and his hatred for this court, coupled with his penchant for burning buildings and vehicles, renders him an extreme danger to the public — particularly law enforcement and the judiciary.”
Assistant Public Defender Patrick McAreavy called McGraw’s request for maximum prison time “nearly unbelievable” and wrote he was acting as if the fires were “the worst possible arson in the history of Pennsylvania.”
The fires were started when nobody was in either building and caused “minimal damage,” McAreavy wrote in his 32-page memo to Grine. He requested Hassinger be sentenced to two to four years in state prison.
“Attempted murder is not the same as murder, drunk driving is not the same as crashing into someone while driving drunk and causing $1,201 in damage to two separate buildings is not the same as burning them down,” McAreavy wrote.
Hassinger’s behavior is “escalating” and the fires put nearby residents at risk, Grine said.
Hassinger could spend additional time in state prison, as he is also accused of setting fire to a sheriff’s van in November 2017. He confessed to starting the fire during a conversation with a Centre County Correctional Facility inmate, Bellefonte police said.
He is charged with one felony count each of reckless burning and criminal mischief. No trial date has been scheduled.
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 12:50 PM.