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Former Fayette County magistrate pleads guilty to hindering prosecution

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A former Fayette County magistrate charged with fixing a drunken driving case will serve 18 months of probation as part of a guilty plea to hindering prosecution.

In exchange for the guilty plea, state prosecutors dismissed counts of perjury and obstruction of justice that had been lodged against Dwight Shaner, 71, of Dunbar.

Shaner appeared this morning in Dauphin County court to enter the plea and was immediately sentenced. His attorney declined comment following the brief hearing.

The charges against Shaner were filed by the state Attorney General’s office following a statewide grand jury investigation.

According to the grand jury presentment that led to the charges, Shaner fixed a drunken driving case for the nephew of Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Linda Cordaro in 2011. Cordaro at that time served as the assistant district attorney assigned to Shaner’s office, and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The morning of the DUI hearing, Cordaro recused herself from prosecuting the case.

The state police trooper who filed the charge testified before a grand jury that he asked for a continuance of the hearing, but that Shaner denied it. Shaner reportedly told the grand jury that the trooper never asked for a delay, but that statement was contradicted by the testimony of the trooper, and by the defense attorney and the mother of the defendant.

Shaner’s long-time secretary testified the she could not recall a similar incident in the 17 years she worked with him that Shaner did not grant a continuance when asked.

Fayette County District Attorney Jack Heneks declined to refile the charges in the DUI case. The DUI charges against Cordaro’s nephew, Robert Rudnik, were eventually prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s office following a complaint made to the office that the case had been fixed. Rudnik entered a guilty plea in 2013.

Heneks has also not been accused of any wrongdoing.

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