The saga of the O’Neill clan continues. I’m hard-pressed to remember a family that has seen so much turmoil, involving so many different members of a single family.

Father, daughter, son. All have now had scrapes with the law. And all continue to work their way through the justice system.

There’s a part of me that feels sorry for them, that this much misfortune could befall one family. And there’s a part of me that wonders what the hell is going on with this family, how they can continue to act the way they do and put themselves in circumstances that so clearly stretch the limits of the law.

Then I get a phone call that offers a different view. It was from Susan Sheridan. She is the mother of Scott Sheridan. He is the young man and fellow Cardinal O’Hara student who was a close friend of Sean O’Neill Jr. and a tragic part of an incident that first landed the O’Neill family in the headlines.

After a night of partying, Sean O’Neill Jr. apparently pointed a gun at Sheridan. It went off. Scott Sheridan died in Sean O’Neill’s arms.

Since then O’Neill Jr. has been in both the adult and juvenile court systems. He served time at a juvenile camp. Back in October his bail was revoked after it was learned he had twice violated its terms. He was sent into a second treatment program.

He’s not the only family member to cross paths with the law.

The patriarch, Sean O’Neill Sr., is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal immigration, weapons and tax charges.

His sister, Roisin O’Neill, is facing trial on charges she was drunk when she was driving the wrong way on the Blue Route and slammed into another car, killing a grandmother who was driving to Delaware County to visit her grandkids.

Roisin and Sean Jr. were involved in another incident when they passed through a sobriety checkpoint at 1:30 in the morning back in April.
Neither was found to be drinking, but six underage kids in the car were cited.

Roisin was found to be in violation of her bail. A judge recently ordered her to report to jail on the weekends, while she can remain free on home monitoring during the week while getting treatment for injuries she suffered in the crash.

Meanwhile, a Chester County judge ruled that Sean O’Neill Jr. had not violated his bail in connection with the traffic stop. A prosecutor said she asked for the review with the judge, who then requested more formal limits be placed on Sean O’Neill Jr.’s comings and going. He also put a
9 p.m. curfew in place.

Susan Sheridan is not impressed. She continues to have problems with the way the O’Neill cases have been handled and openly wonders if they have received special treatment.

I suppose she is entitled. The O’Neills have certainly lost a lot in this saga, but not nearly as much as Sheridan has.

She lost her son. Sometimes that gets forgotten in all this.