Collegeville Woman Admits to Role in Fatal Lower Pottsgrove Crash Coverup

Denise E. Dinnocenti, 43, of West Ninth Avenue, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of obstructing administration of law, hindering apprehension or prosecution, insurance fraud, among others, after she told police that she was behind the wheel of the vehicle that struck and killed 16-year-old Timothy Anthony Paciello Jr. on East High Street in Lower Pottsgrove just before 9 p.m. on Nov. 12, according to the Times Herald.

Days after the crash, Dinnocenti allegedly admitted that her boyfriend at the time, Robert Norman Sitler, Sr., was driving the 2009 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.

Authorities say that Dinnocenti, who lived in Perkiomen Township with Sitler at the time of the crash, reportedly lied to police because Sitler was convicted of vehicular homicide/manslaughter in Alabama in 2004, and he had had a “drink or two” prior to getting behind the wheel of the truck.

According to police, Dinnocenti’s two minor children were in the rear of the pickup truck at the time of the crash, and she told them to lie about who was driving the vehicle. As a result, she was also charged with corruption of minors.

Dinnocenti is also charged with unsworn falsification to authorities, making false reports and conspiracy; she is out on bail awaiting trial.

Sitler is currently in county jail in lieu of $1 million cash bail before his trial, set for early November.