52 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
52 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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aliases:
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- Donald West VanArtsdalen
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- Donald W. VanArtsdalen
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category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Judge
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- FederalJudiciary
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- BucksCounty
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- RCHorsch
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summary: "Bucks County prosecutor and federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1970 who added a year and a day to R.C. Horsch's 1985 sentence for bail-jumping."
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born: 1919-10-21
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died: 2019-05-21
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location: "Doylestown, Pennsylvania"
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]"
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role: "district judge"
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start: 1970-10-15
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end: 2019-05-21
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fn: 1
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- type: appointed
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with: "[[Richard Nixon]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1970-09-10
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fn: 1
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Bucks County District Attorney's Office]]"
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role: "district attorney"
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start: 1954
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end: 1958
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fn: 1
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created: 2026-09-23
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updated: 2026-09-23
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---
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Donald West VanArtsdalen (October 21, 1919, to May 21, 2019), whose name was printed as Van Artsdalen in the Philadelphia press, was the district attorney of [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] from 1954 to 1958 and a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] from 1970 until his death at 99. In April 1985 he sentenced [[R.C. Horsch]], then Raymond Charles Hoersch, to a year and a day for bail-jumping, consecutive to the three-year methamphetamine sentence imposed by Judge [[Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.]][^1][^2]
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### Career
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VanArtsdalen was born in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]]. He served in the Canadian Army from 1940 to 1942 and in the [[United States Army]] as a sergeant from 1942 to 1945, then took an LL.B. at the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]] in 1948 and practiced law in Doylestown until 1970, serving meanwhile as Bucks County district attorney. [[Richard Nixon]] nominated him on September 10, 1970, to a new seat created by statute; he was confirmed on October 8 and commissioned on October 15, 1970. He took senior status on October 21, 1985, and died in Doylestown on May 21, 2019.[^1] His wife, Marie Catherine VanArtsdalen, died in December 2016 after 63 years of marriage.[^3]
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### The Hoersch Sentence
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Hoersch, who had grown up in Bucks County and whose parents lived in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]], had jumped bail on a 1977 federal methamphetamine charge and spent the following seven years as a fugitive, most of them in [[New Zealand]] under a stolen name. Sentencing him for the bail offense, VanArtsdalen said that fugitives must be punished "no matter how exemplary a life they may have lived" while at large.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "VanArtsdalen, Donald West." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/vanartsdalen-donald-west
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[^2]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/
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[^3]: "Marie A. VanArtsdalen," obituary, Reed and Steinbach Funeral Home, 2016. https://www.reedandsteinbach.com/obituaries/marie-a-vanartsdalen
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