In fact, before Heineman ever arrived, Stewart had called the state police to demand that they send a trooper over to throw the uninvited cleric out of his house.

chapter continues

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After a few minutes of chilling silence, two troopers arrived at the house. Though Eames maintained in court that she never spoke to either of the officers, one of them, Trooper Charles Carroll of the Bloomsburg Barracks, told the court that Eames had come out to meet him on the front porch and asked that he not evict Heineman from the house.

There had been no violence, only a strained, and by all appearances, alcohol-soaked sullenness before the cops arrived. The truth was, the cops lacked the authority to evict Heineman. He was there as a guest of Mardell Eames, Carroll testified, and "there was nothing I could do. They both own(ed) the house."

According to published reports of his testimony, Carroll entered the house and told Stewart that he couldn't help him, but urged Eames and Heineman to take heed of Stewart's seething anger at the priest's presence.

It's not clear whether the trooper's admonishment sunk in.

It was clear to the trooper, however, that he had no choice but to leave a volatile situation unresolved.

In court, Carroll reportedly testified that he "was concerned about the alcohol and Mr. Stewart's agitation."

The two troopers, Dennehy said, were even more blunt in a later conversation with the lawyer.

"One of the troopers even (said) later that on his way back to the barracks, he had remarked to another trooper, 'You know, if those people don't get their (act) together, somebody's going to be laying on the floor,'" Dennehy said.

The two cops hadn't even finished the 20-minute trip back to the Bloomsburg barracks when that prediction came true.