Moon Couple Accused Of Encouraging Daughter To Fight

MOON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Moon Township police are accusing Armand Goins and his wife, Angela Fitzpatrick, of encouraging their 13-year-old daughter to fight a 14-year-old girl.

Police presented a cell phone video shot by another teenager that shows a crowd of people on Juniper Street in the Mooncrest neighborhood.

An officer identified Goins who is seen and heard telling the girls to go over to the grass and not to fight on the concrete. The couple's attorney, Thomas Fuchel, Sr., says that not how it happened.

"It sounds like they're saying, 'Let's go fight but in the grass!'

"No what they're saying is, 'Let's go somewhere safe and then settle this down,' but the officers whose hearing this on this tape that this kid took is saying, 'No, no, that means let's go fight in the grass,'" he said.

Goins also yells, "It's time to go in." Then, his step-daughter is heard screaming, "Let go of me!" just before she gets pushed into the other girl and starts fighting.

While the two girls are rolling on the ground, the officer points out that the mother is telling her daughter to get her.

Their attorney says the daughter had been harassed for months and they tried to get help from police but never got a response.

"And actually the history really is this one girl who has tormented the daughter of these two defendants and come after her and threatened her on Facebook, on text messages, through other people's text messages, 'I'm going to get you. I'm going to hurt you,' and things like that."

But the Moon Township police officer said the wife and husband stood there and watched and did not break up the fight.

Police say when the fight was over, one child had a six-inch scratch on her face. The other had bruising and swelling on her cheek.

Meanwhile, the judge decided to hold Goins and Fitzpatrick over for trial on the charges.

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