Civil suit brought against Greene County officer dismissed
One week before a Greene County man’s civil suit for wrongful arrest was to go to court, a federal judge dismissed the matter with prejudice following a stipulation filed by attorneys from both sides.
The dismissal did not mention a settlement in the wrongful arrest lawsuit brought by David O’Hara of Carmichaels. However, earlier this month attorney for O’Hara and Cumberland Township police Officer Jorel Hanley – the lone defendant left in the suit – met to discuss a potential settlement, according to court records.
Suzanne B. Merrick, an attorney for Hanley, extended a settlement offer of $200,000, according to court records. O’Hara, through his attorney, Joel Sansone, asked for $1 million in damages. Both sides signed off on a joint update on an attempted settlement and sent it to the judge the following day.
The dismissal, posted on the case docket Monday, came one week before the Aug. 22 trial date set for the matter.
O’Hara, who had been charged with but acquitted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in 2005 and 2006, sued Hanley and others, claiming false arrest, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A judge found that that Hanley, Hanley, who filed the charges against O’Hara, could have made misrepresentations or omitted things from the arrest affidavit that might have stopped the case from going forward.
Hanley, U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer wrote earlier this year, was aware of nine facts that could have caused a magisterial district judge to determine there was not probable cause to charge O’Hara.
Among the things Fischer said Hanley knew when he filed charges were that other sex abuse claims made by the child were unfounded, the child denied having been abused and CYS determined the case was unfounded.
O’Hara had also named Cumberland Township Office Craig Miller, Children and Youth Services employees Yvonne Suppok and Michael Schlesinger, District attorney Marjorie Fox and Assistant District Attorney Linda Chambers, along with Greene County and Cumberland Township, as defendants when the suit was filed in 2008. However, over the years, the other defendants were dismissed from the case.
For more information, read Wednesday’s HeraldStandard.com.