By Denis J. O'Malley

TIMES-TRIBUNE

September 13 , 2012

Bath salts (left) or virus?

Naked, covered in his own blood and screaming "like an animal," a Doylestown man attacked a woman in Hawley on Friday and gnawed on her head after breaking into a home and jumping from a second-floor window, state police said.

Richard Cimino Jr., 20, first pulled his car behind 634 Hudson St. early Friday morning, got out and stripped to his underpants, state police said.

When the resident at that home awoke to Mr. Cimino's attempt to break in, Mr. Cimino fled to 521 Hudson St., took his underpants off on the way and broke into that home, which was empty, state police said.

Mr. Cimino walked up to the home's second floor, jumped out of a window and severely injured his arms and legs when he hit the ground, state police said.

Bleeding profusely, Mr. Cimino went through the home's garage, then approached two women walking down the street - Ann Monaghan and Nancy Dean-Corino, both of Hawley.

Mr. Cimino tackled Ms. Dean-Corino and, bleeding all over her, "began to gnaw" at her head, all while "screaming like an animal," according to a state police press release.

The two women managed to escape and call police. Responding troopers found Mr. Cimino lying in the road covered in blood with severe injuries.

When Mr. Cimino - who state police described as acting delusional and confrontational - lunged at a trooper, another trooper deployed a stun gun, though he continued to act aggressively, even punching an emergency medical technician treating his injuries before he was transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.

It was not clear what, if anything, Mr. Cimino was under the influence of at the time of the incident. State police on Wednesday said that information was still pending testing.

Note from Dr. Pecos: I suppose this will be attributed to bath salts. That's what happened in the case of the Miami face-eater, even though he was not found to be under the influence of any drugs. My question is, shouldn't we be looking at other possibilities?