{"id":215625,"date":"2026-06-10T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/215625\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:22:09","slug":"pennsylvania-man-charged-in-backhoe-home-damage-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/215625\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania man charged in backhoe home damage case"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘If it’s over, I\u2019ll tear the house down’: Pennsylvania man accused of using excavator to tear into home with family inside<\/p>\n

\"KaleaBUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

A Pennsylvania man faces felony charges after allegedly using a backhoe to damage his home while his wife and daughters were inside, following a domestic dispute. <\/p>\n

Erik Pierwsza, 48, appeared before a judge today, where the Butler County District Attorney\u2019s office downgraded his most serious charge from causing catastrophe, a second-degree felony, to risking catastrophe, a third-degree felony. <\/p>\n

All other charges, including multiple counts of recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct, were held for court. <\/p>\n

“They could have charged him with potentially other criminal offenses. And they agreed not to do that,” Pawk said. <\/p>\n

Pierwsza left court quickly and quietly. <\/p>\n

“You know, my client wants to move on. He wants to get this resolved in the courts eventually and possibly reunite with his kids,” Pawk said. <\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint<\/a>, Pierwsza\u2019s wife, whom he is in the middle of separating from, called 911 two weeks ago after he allegedly became angry when she told him their marriage was over. <\/p>\n

The complaint states that Pierwsza responded, “If it\u2019s over, I\u2019ll tear the house down.”<\/p>\n

Moments later, he allegedly powered up his excavator and began tearing up the backside of the home. <\/p>\n

“This was a domestic matter, an ongoing divorce situation. He built the house himself. You know, the marriage is over, and he took the backhoe to the \u2014 he allegedly took a backhoe to the back porch and didn\u2019t cause any other structural damage,” Pawk said. <\/p>\n

The complaint also alleges that Pierwsza\u2019s wife and two daughters were inside the home during the incident. When asked about this detail, Pawk said, “My understanding is they say they were. Certainly could\u2019ve walked out the front door at any time.”<\/p>\n

Pierwsza is scheduled to be formally arraigned in late July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘If it’s over, I\u2019ll tear the house down’: Pennsylvania man accused of using excavator to tear into home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26950,55414,94421,4112,94423,449,8467,94422,94428,3624,711,15650,37018,94430,94420,59891,94424,2661,25946,94425,16020,28,30,29,94427,69620,5104,94429,11751,94426],"class_list":["post-215625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-911-call","tag-arraignment","tag-backhoe","tag-butler-county","tag-catastrophe","tag-court","tag-criminal-complaint","tag-daughters","tag-demand-menu-subscribe","tag-dhnd","tag-disorderly-conduct","tag-divorce","tag-domestic-dispute","tag-email-weather-search","tag-erik-pierwsza","tag-excavator","tag-excavator-damage","tag-felony-charges","tag-home-damage","tag-home-destruction","tag-page","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-privacy-notice-term","tag-recklessly-endangering-another-person","tag-risking-catastrophe","tag-use-nextfre","tag-wife","tag-wjcl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}