A Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty Monday to shooting a state attorney general after a confrontation over a property transfer and was sentenced to several years in prison.
Porice Diamond Mincy pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for shooting Cameron County District Attorney Paul J. Malizia in the leg at Malizia’s law office last June.
The 32-year-old Brookville woman was sentenced to four to eight years in prison. Malizia was released from a hospital the day he was shot.
Attorney General Michelle Henry, whose office prosecuted Mincy, called it a “brazen act of violence” and noted that Malizia has remained in office since the attack.
Henry’s office said in a statement that Mincy showed up without an appointment at Malizia’s office in rural Emporium, about 129 miles (209 kilometers) east of Erie, and made some sort of demands regarding a transfer of ownership, a matter he handled as a private practice. lawyer, not as a prosecutor.
Mincy “became belligerent,” Henry’s office said, and shot him in the leg before leaving in a car. She was arrested shortly afterwards.
Her attorney, Lonny Fish, said Monday that the other charges against her had been dismissed.
“She came into the office and was not happy with the answers the secretary gave,” Fish said. “So she went and vandalized one of the other offices, and that’s when he approached her in the waiting room. And he hit her. To be honest I think he was probably within his rights to do that – she was an intruder.”
Fish said Mincy was not licensed to carry a concealed weapon “so she would most likely be convicted of that anyway.”
He described Mincy as a mother of small children who had never been in trouble before. She had moved to the area from New York and homeschooled her children.
Malizia said in a telephone interview on Monday that after Mincy confronted his office worker and threw office materials on the floor, she punched him and broke his nose. He said he lunged at her but missed.
Fish produced a cell phone video Mincy recorded that he said shows Malizia actually hit Mincy.
Malizia, currently 70 years old and in his fourth term, said he grabbed Mincy around the waist and tried to get her down the stairs and out of the office.
“She stopped for a moment, turned her head and bit me on my thigh, on my left thigh,” he said. The bite did not tear through his jeans, but was strong enough to cause a wound.
She then pulled a .25-caliber automatic pistol from a fanny pack, he thinks, and shot him in the other leg, Malizia said. The barrel was against his leg and the bullet passed through the outside of his leg, ricocheted off a wall and landed in a hallway about 35 feet away.
Malizia was treated in a hospital and released that night and therefore did not miss any work.
Mincy was angry about the names placed on a deed when ownership was transferred, Malizia said.
“I wish her the best of luck,” Malizia said. “I mean that very sincerely.”
