California councilman files suit
A California Borough councilman charged with attempting to steal a car with a woman inside has filed suit against the woman and her husband, claiming he and his wife were the victims of a physical attack at their hands. John Greenlief and his wife, Merridy, filed the suit Friday in Fayette County Court. Jeff and Amanda Pikulsky of Monessen are named as defendants.
John Greenlief, according to Uniontown police, tried to steal the Pikulsky’s car with Amanda inside on Nov. 24. Police alleged he opened the door of the Pikulsky’s running car while it was parked outside the Highland House bar, climbed in and then backed up about 5 feet with Amanda Pikulsky in the passenger seat. When she screamed at him to get out of the car, police allege Greenlief refused.
Greenlief exited the vehicle when Jeff Pikulsky came back outside the bar and pulled him out by the shirt.
According to police, Jeff Pikulsky was assaulted by John Greenlief and his brother, Leonard.
But the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Greenliefs by attorney Samuel Davis tells a different story, calling the Pikulskys “sadistic” and claimed that they are the ones who attacked.
Greenlief, wrote Davis, went to the Pikulskys’ car at his wife’s request with the sole purpose of asking Amanda Pikulsky to move the vehicle so that their vehicle could get through.
When Amanda Pikulsky wouldn’t roll down the window to listen to Greenlief, the suit said he opened the driver’s side door to make his request. At that, the suit claims that Amanda Pikulsky, “immediately ordered (Greenlief) to get away from the car by uttering violent, obscene and profane language and with menacing and threatening gestures.”
Pikulsky’s “verbal barrage,” according to the suit, frightened and alarmed Merridy Greenlief, who was waiting for her husband to return.
“At that time and place, without warning, the defendant, Jeff Pikulsky, swept upon the unsuspecting plaintiff, John Greenlief, and began to inflict a savage, unmerciless, brutal and raging beating on the body of (Greenlief), by slamming the Lexus car door repeatedly into (his) head and body,” wrote Davis.
As a result of those blows, Greenlief fell into a planter in front of the Highland House, according to the suit.
While Greenlief was “lying prone and defenseless in the muddy planter, the defendant, Amanda, leaped out of her car hurling extreme profanities at the disabled plaintiff … and began to repeatedly kick (Greenlief in the groin and all about his body,” claims the suit.
The suit also claimed that Amanda Pikulsky delivered soccer-style kicks to Greenlief’s body while her husband continued hitting Greenlief.
When Merridy Greenlief tried to stop the alleged beating, the suit claims Amanda Pikulsky attacked her.
As a result of the alleged beating, John Greenlief suffered several maladies, including bruising about his face, headaches, dizziness and trauma to the head. Merridy Greenlief suffered bruising to her back and right arm and shock to her nervous system.
“The savagery of the unprovoked beatings give the (Greenliefs) by the (Pikulskys) constitutes such wanton, outrageous and willful conduct so as to warrant the grant of punitive damages,” wrote Davis.
He is asking that a jury hear the case and issue both compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000 each.
Greenlief faces a February preliminary hearing on the charges.