Woman professes innocence in cocaine-spiked coffee attack

By MARK MARONEY mmaroney@sungazette.com
A woman facing charges alleging she asked her ex-husband’s girlfriend to spike his coffee with cocaine to trigger a heart attack said his paramour intended to kill him, not her.

Patricia A. Reiman, 42 at the time, of 2941 Lick Run Road in Eldred Township, stands accused of asking her former husband’s girlfriend, Anna Anae, 45 at the time, of trying to kill David Reiman last fall.

But in a pre-trial motion filed recently in Lycoming County Court by Reiman’s attorney Peter Campana, Campana asserts evidence will show that it was Anae who asked Reiman to supply her with a substance to put into David Reiman’s coffee to prompt cardiac arrest.

“Indeed, the evidence will show that it was Anae who solicited the defendant (Reiman) to supply her with a substance, which she intended to secretly give to (her) former husband for the purpose of causing him harm,” Campana wrote.

Following tape-recorded telephone conversations between the women, Patricia Reiman was charged by state police Oct. 16 with criminal solicitation to commit murder, criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault, possession of cocaine and possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

Reiman told Anae she could get some “stuff” that would cause him to have a heart attack if Anae put it in his coffee, Anae testified at a preliminary hearing in November.

Campana does not reveal the alleged evidence and the district attorney was unable to be reached for immediate comment.

Campana argues for dismissal of criminal solicitation to commit murder and criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault charges.

He also asked for evidence of the tape-recorded conversations to be suppressed based on the grounds that consent of Anae was not voluntary or was otherwise coerced by the investigators.

Investigators said the Reimans were married in 1993 and that the two had been sharing custody of two sons since their divorce.

A hearing has been scheduled before Judge Kenneth D. Brown at 2:30 p.m. April 17 to consider Campana’s pre-trial motion.

Reiman remains free on bail.