Aley gets 4 more months for threats

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MERCER, Pa. — Clifford Aley will serve an additional four months to one year in prison for threatening corrections officers and deputy sheriffs last November.

Judge Francis Fornelli of Mercer County Common Pleas Court sentenced Aley on Tuesday. Aley made the threats against officers and their families while awaiting his January 2006 trial for lying to police about the disappearance of a local woman. Some of Aley's threats included statements that he had friends on the outside who would mutilate a corrections officer, attack a deputy, shoot everyone in the courtroom, and blow up the building.

Aley, 49, a Beaver county private detective, was convicted in January of three felony counts of hindering apprehension/false information to law enforcement officers. He was sentenced in March to 18 to 48 months on each count.

Damaged case

Authorities said his lies damaged the chance of finding and prosecuting whoever is responsible for the disappearance of Sandra Kay Baker of Delaware Township in May 2000. Aley had been hired by Baker's boyfriend to investigate Baker's background, and he helped dispose of her car.

Aley appeared in court in a wheelchair Tuesday and told the judge he is sorry he made the threats but did so because he was upset about threats he claimed Baker's fiancée made against his own children.

During the trial, Aley had testified that these threats were the reason he lied to police during the Baker investigation.

Investigation goes on

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Timothy Bonner said after the sentencing that the investigation is continuing into Baker's disappearance and that Aley is still a part of it.

Linda Henry, Baker's longtime friend, who has worked to keep the case before the public, attended the sentencing wearing a T-shirt bearing Baker's photograph. She said she had hoped that Aley, once again before a judge, would give more information about Baker's disappearance. Although she was disappointed, Henry said she still has hope that Baker's killer will be brought to justice.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006