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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Melissa Ann Scholl was a penniless domestic violence victim whose alleged attempt to kill herself and her two children last year was a desperate plea for help, her attorney argued in court paperwork filed Tuesday.</p><p>The 33-year-old mother was exhibiting &#8220;harmless conduct&#8221; when a bystander happened upon her and her two children, then ages 5 and 7, in a parked car in the Williams Bus Line parking lot in Wilkes-Barre Township on Dec. 9, 2015, defense attorney Larry Kansky argued. A hose allegedly ran from the car&#8217;s exhaust pipe into a window.</p><p>Kansky, in a court filing calling for dismissal of Scholl&#8217;s charges, claimed his client was a &#8220;poor, destitute, working young mother&#8221; who slept next to fire extinguishers because she feared her abusive husband would make good on his threats to burn down their home.</p><p>Her actions in the parking lot weren&#8217;t a murder-suicide attempt, but &#8220;a cry for help &#8230; to her mother for love and care,&#8221; Kansky wrote.</p><p>&#8220;This was exhibited by the harmless conduct (Scholl) knew would bring her mother and cause her mother to help her and her children,&#8221; he said, claiming the kids &#8220;were never helpless or in danger of being harmed.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Unfortunately,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;a bystander misinterpreted what he saw &#8230; called 911 and Wilkes-Barre Township police arrested Melissa Scholl within four minutes of their arrival at the alleged crime scene.&#8221;</p><p>Kansky has pushed for Scholl&#8217;s case to be thrown out on multiple claims, including prosecutors&#8217; alleged mishandling and destruction of evidence, repeated violations of a gag order, and most recently, failure to take the case to trial in the allotted by law.</p><p>Prosecutors have denied wrongdoing, saying Kansky&#8217;s motions are to blame for the delay. A judge has yet to issue a ruling.</p><p>Scholl, meanwhile, remains jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on $500,000 bail.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Melissa Scholl is arraigned in December 2015 on charges she tried to asphyxiate herself and her two children in the Williams Bus Line parking lot on Blackman Street in Wilkes-Barre Township. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL121015scholl1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Melissa Scholl is arraigned in December 2015 on charges she tried to asphyxiate herself and her two children in the Williams Bus Line parking lot on Blackman Street in Wilkes-Barre Township. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Melissa Ann Scholl&#8217;s behavior &#8216;a cry for help&#8217;</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Attorney: Kids in mom’s alleged murder-suicide attempt ‘never helpless or in danger’