Justice is served in
local abuse-of-corpse case

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Common Pleas Court Judge William J. Mazzola offered a simple explanation after revoking Michael Gallagher’s bail last week and ordering him to immediately begin serving a prison sentence of three to 23-1/2 months.
"Let’s not postpone the inevitable," Mazzola told a courtroom crowded with the family of the defendant’s deceased wife on April 11.
Gallagher, 51, a postal carrier from the 9800 block of Wisteria St. in Bustleton, lost an appeal of his conviction on an abuse-of-corpse charge stemming from the suspicious death of his wife Denise in August 2005.
Also on April 11, Gallagher pleaded guilty to simple assault for a separate attack on his wife weeks prior to her death. In exchange for the plea, assistant district attorneys Mark Gilson and Lauren Kearns agreed not to pursue an aggravated-assault count and other charges. They also agreed to recommend a sentence of three to 23-1/2 months, to run concurrently with his prison term for the abuse-of-corpse conviction.
Following the plea, defense attorney Laurence Narcisi asked for Mazzola to delay Gallagher’s incarceration pending a possible further appeal.
But Mazzola revoked the defendant’s bail, much to the appreciation of Denise Gallagher’s family.
"We just wanted him to go to jail, if anything for just one day," said the victim’s brother, Ed, who asked that his last name not be published. "It seemed like he kept going back home every time he would come (to court). He’s been working the system for years."
Denise Gallagher’s family suspects that Michael had something to do with her death beyond what authorities were able to find. In four years of marriage, and about 10 years together in all, he was arrested seven times for allegedly abusing her.
Six times, Denise Gallagher refused to pursue a complaint. But on the most recent domestic-assault case, she had testified against him at a preliminary hearing. That was two weeks before her death.
In arguing against continued bail, Gilson noted that Gallagher was also free on bail at the time of his wife’s death, which he did not report to authorities for at least 24 hours, according to medical evidence in the case.
"The defendant is someone of poor or bad character. He has abused his wife in life and in death," Gilson said.
Further, the prosecutor said, Michael Gallagher is addicted to alcohol and/or drugs and had failed to appear in court at least twice in connection with prior domestic-assault cases involving his wife.
On Aug. 14, 2005, at about 7 p.m., police found Denise Gallagher dead on a couch in the couple’s second-floor duplex, a pair of denim shorts over her head.
A medical examiner was unable to determine the cause of death — blaming the delay in the recovery of the woman’s body. Asphyxiation was listed as the suspected cause. There were no indications of recent trauma to the body.
"Because of his actions, we’ll never know the cause of death," the victim’s sister, Deborah, said of Michael Gallagher.
According to court testimony, Gallagher told authorities multiple contradictory stories about the circumstances leading up to and following Denise Gallagher’s death.
He originally told investigators that he woke up to find his wife dead and promptly called authorities.
When paramedics theorized that the woman had been dead for at least four or five hours before their arrival on the scene, Gallagher told police that he found her dead at about 1 p.m. but failed to call 911 because of grief and shock. He then went to sleep, he told investigators.
Later, Gallagher added new facts to his story, claiming that Denise had been acting "strange" on Aug. 12. On Aug. 13, he went to work and was unable to reach his wife by telephone, he said.
After work, he went to a local bar to meet his wife, but she didn’t show up, Gallagher claimed. He went home that night to find her alive but incoherent, so he yelled at her and began watching television, he said.
At one point, he suspected that she was having a heart attack and attempted to administer CPR, he claimed. But he never called 911 or sought outside help, though they lived less than a block from a police and fire station.
"You ask yourself, did the defendant at those times have a duty to act?" Mazzola told the courtroom. "When she was alive and in physical distress, did he have a duty to act? I think he did.
"Did that duty to act remain when she was dead and in his presence? I think it did," the judge added.
About a dozen members of the victim’s family attended as many as 10 court hearings to see justice served. Those on hand for the latest session included Denise’s mother Rita, brothers Ed and Greg, sister Deborah, and Denise’s adult children from a prior marriage, Jessica and Jeremy.
"My family and I were on a bus ride and we were going to continue on it until the end," said the victim’s brother Ed.
"Our family gave her dignity back in death that he took from her in life." ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com