Police: Man Stabbed Himself, Blamed it on Romantic Rival

A Phoenixville man faces criminal charges after police say he stabbed himself with a box cutter and blamed the attack on a man who'd had an affair with the mother of his child.

Alan C. Coleman faces charges of falsely incriminating another and disorderly conduct stemming from the September incident.

According to court documents, on September 4 at 7:48 p.m., Phoenixville Police responded to an apartment on the unit block of Bridge Street for a stabbing. When they arrived on the scene, Coleman told them that he had been stabbed in the chest and the face by another man.

Coleman, who had deep wounds on his torso and several more superficial cuts on his face, explained that his assailant knocked on his door that evening between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and, when he answered, assaulted him in the hallway with a box cutter before fleeing the scene in his truck.

After Coleman gave this report, police spoke with the mother of his one-year-old daughter, who was also at the scene. The woman, who is presently in a relationship with Coleman, told officers “he is crazy, he needs to see a psych doctor and he did it to himself.” She added, when pressed to clarify, “Alan cut himself,” but became belligerent when asked to submit to a formal interview.

The woman did give the number of the man Coleman alleged stabbed him to police. When police called him, he denied stabbing Coleman, explaining that he had been in the Home Depot in Downingtown at the time of the incident. He told police that he had had an affair with the mother of Coleman’s child.

Police took photographs of the accused's face, hands, and clothing, none of which showed any sign of a bloody struggle. They also spoke with a man he said he was with at the time of the incident, who corroborated his account.

Police also, with his permission, obtained his cellphone records. On November 8, they received records indicating that the cellphone was in the Downingtown area at the time of the crime.

Alan C. Coleman was charged with falsifying the account on November 16 and arraigned on November 20. He was confined to Chester County Prison when he was unable to post bail and will face preliminary hearing on November 29.