Prosecutors file paperwork
Fayette County prosecutors filed paperwork Friday asking that a summary trial date be set for Lori Jean Smith, who was found guilty of pushing a state police trooper who arrested her father for homicide last year. Magisterial District Judge Rick Vernon sentenced Smith, 31, of Uniontown to 90 days in prison after finding her guilty of summary harassment and disorderly conduct charges in December. Smith allegedly shoved trooper Pierre A. Wilson as he and other police were leading Lawrence Cseripko into Vernon’s office for preliminary arraignment on homicide charges Oct. 28.
Cseripko was charged in the 1997 shooting death of Paul Joseph Horvat. Last year, police were able to use DNA from deer at the scene of Horvat’s death and deer meat taken from Cseripko’s freezer to link him to the slaying. Smith also allegedly used racial slurs toward Wilson and attempted to harm a Herald-Standard news photographer there to take pictures of Cseripko. Since Smith has appealed Vernon’s ruling, a Fayette County judge will set a date to hear evidence.