by KYW's Al Novack
A Philadelphia man is facing charges of assaulting his mother, an elderly Philadelphia Common Pleas judge. And he may have brought additional accusations of indecent exposure on himself.
According to police investigators, Judge Lisa Richette, 79, was assaulted on Tuesday by her son, 48-year-old Lawrence Richette, in some sort of domestic dispute.
Judge Richette (in file photo at right) is recovering. Police say she is not cooperating with investigators.
The alleged assault took place Tuesday afternoon at the judge's Lombard Street home. The incident came to light around 5pm that day, when a fire rescue crew took her to Jefferson Hospital for treatment of a cut above her eye that required four stitches.
The son, who lives nearby in the 2200 block of Pemberton Street in South Philadelphia, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, and reckless endangerment.
On Wednesday afternoon, when a WCAU-TV camera crew and female reporter visited Lawrence Richette's home, he opened the door in his bathrobe. Then he opened his bathrobe (top photo).
Tuesday wasn't the first time Judge Richette had been assaulted. Twenty years ago she was attacked by a purse snatcher; she was punched in 2005; and she was assaulted again just last August by a woman while sitting in her car in center city (see related stories).
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