NE man to appeal conviction
for abuse of corpse

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

A 51-year-old Northeast man convicted of abusing the corpse of his wife has rescinded his demand for a retrial and instead appealed his guilty verdict.
In the meantime, Michael Gallagher, 51, of the 9800 block of Wisteria St. in Bustleton, remains free on bail. He had been sentenced to a county prison sentence of three to 23-1/2 months following his misdemeanor conviction last spring.
Gallagher showed up for his scheduled retrial on March 8 with a new private attorney, Laurence Narcisi, to replace the public defender he had used for his trial and sentencing before Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan last May and June.
By right, any defendant convicted in a Municipal Court trial is entitled to a retrial on the Common Pleas Court level.
During such a proceeding, the entire case would be repeated with both the commonwealth and defense resubmitting all evidence and witnesses re-testifying.
But under Narcisi’s counsel, Gallagher has waived his retrial rights and instead appealed Meehan’s ruling on matters of law. Common Pleas Court Judge William J. Mazzola is scheduled to hear the appeal on April 11.
Nobody has been charged in connection with the suspicious death of the defendant’s wife, 42-year-old Denise Gallagher. But Michael Gallagher has admitted waiting as long as six hours before reporting the woman’s death to authorities on Aug. 14, 2005.
Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood later determined that the woman had been dead for at least 24 hours before her 7 p.m. discovery by police on a couch in the couple’s second-floor duplex. Hood was unable to determine a cause of death but suspected asphyxiation.
At trial, Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson revealed a history of abuse by Michael Gallagher of his wife. The defendant had been arrested seven times starting in 1997 for alleged domestic violence. But Denise Gallagher declined to testify against him six times.
They were married for four years and had dated for several years prior to that.
Two weeks before her death, Denise Gallagher finally followed through on an abuse complaint by testifying at a preliminary hearing resulting from his seventh arrest. That case has been consolidated with the abuse-of-corpse case, Gilson said.
Michael Gallagher may be tried on an aggravated assault charge once his pending appeal is heard. A trial date has not been set.
According to evidence and testimony from the abuse-of-corpse trial, Michael Gallagher originally told police that he woke up to find his wife dead. She inexplicably was wearing a pair of denim shorts over her head with her arms through the leg holes. There were no signs of recent trauma on the body.
When paramedics theorized that she had been dead at least four or five hours, Michael Gallagher’s story began to change. He then admitted finding the woman dead at 1 p.m. and failed to call 911 because of grief and shock. He then went to sleep, he claimed.
Gallagher later added a new set of facts to his story, Gilson said. The defendant told police that his wife began acting "strange" on Aug. 12. On Aug. 13, he worked a shift as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier in Olney and was unable to reach his wife by phone.
After work, he went to Benny the Bum’s, a Bustleton bar/restaurant, and expected to meet his wife there, the defendant claimed. But she didn’t show.
Denise Gallagher was alive but incoherent when he arrived home that night, so he yelled at her and began watching television, he claimed.
At one point he attempted CPR on the woman because he suspected she was having a heart attack, he claimed. But he never called 911 or sought emergency help, despite living less than a block from a police station and firehouse.
Knowing Gallagher’s alleged history of domestic abuse and his documented alcohol problem, Denise Gallagher’s family suspects that he had a hand in her death. They have been ever present at court hearings throughout the 19-month ordeal.
Siblings and the victim’s adult son and daughter were among those on hand last week. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com