By Cliff Lewis
Wednesday marked the second and final day of the Bucher estate hearings. The day’s extensive line-up of personal and professional testimonies continued to weave an emotionally complex and factually complicated narrative regarding the late Thomas Bucher. These testimonies, infused with frequent objections from both sides of the dispute, included the likes of Thomas Bucher’s father, former boss, attorney, sister, and brother-in-law—who, being the contestant’s legal representative, had called himself to the stand.
Wilson Bucher’s attorney, Steven Blair, first questioned Christine Blair, his wife and the sister of Thomas Bucher. Mrs. Blair confirmed earlier testimony from her sister, Mrs. Owen, that Thomas Bucher had maintained a “warm” relationship with his parents, siblings, and in-laws prior to the falling-out in 2003. During a watershed confrontation on March 1, 2003, Mrs. Blair recounted, her brother puzzlingly said “we have a database” that confirmed mishandling of the Helen Bucher estate. Thomas Bucher’s use of the pronoun “we,” Mrs. Blair later stated, significantly detracted from her confidence in his sanity.
Later in the hearing, Robert Hallinger, the library’s attorney, spotted a chance opportunity to downplay this particular suspicion. Ted Brubaker, who had briefly returned to the stand, affirmed a quotation from a past deposition by saying, “We had made a similar statement.” At that point, Hallinger quickly asked the court reporter to read back this section of the transcript. Brubaker asserted that he had merely been referring to himself.
Wilson Bucher’s testimony revealed that he and his wife had been unusually involved in the adult life of their son, Thomas. As the adult Thomas Bucher resided rent-free in their home for about twenty years, his parents washed his laundry, ironed his shirts, and provided him with meals at the family table. Also, Wilson Bucher, then a Lancaster County judge, encouraged Thomas to apply for three of his jobs—including a longstanding career with the Lancaster Adult Probation and Parole Office.
Wilson Bucher also recounted a few personal experiences that brought him to question Thomas Bucher’s mental stability. On one occasion in 1998, Wilson Bucher said, his son indicated a belief that Mr. Blair and Mr. Owen were frequently traveling to Las Vegas and gambling away their money. Wilson Bucher said that, when asked to verify this claim, his son offered no evidence. The former judge also testified that Thomas Bucher claimed to hear strange “noises” in the home he occupied after 2001.
Later, Blair called himself to the stand, mostly to state that there was “no basis of fact” for any of the accusations that Thomas Bucher had allegedly leveled against him.
Bruce Campbell, Thomas Bucher’s former supervisor at the Parole Office, was called to the stand by Hallinger to describe his past employee’s level of competence on the job. According to Campbell, Thomas Bucher always received positive performance evaluations for his work in training and overseeing parole officers. Bucher was highly responsive to direction from his superiors and rarely exhibited any contention or disagreement, Campbell said.
Under cross-examination from Blair, Campbell admitted that he had, on occasion, observed some unusual behavior from Thomas Bucher. Particularly, Campbell mentioned that he had seen Thomas Bucher talking to himself in a heated, almost argumentative manner. Campbell, however, was hesitant to view this as a definite sign of insanity.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Joseph Rehkamp asked that both parties submit their briefings to him by the end of January. A specific request for these briefings provided a modest glimpse into the judge’s current line of thinking: Rehkamp asked that both briefings address whether there exists any case law to draw a distinction between “insane delusions” and general delusions or misperceptions of fact.
