Attorney for South Connellsville police chief says his actions do not fit crime
An attorney representing the South Connellsville police chief argued at a hearing Tuesday that her client’s actions do not fit the charge lodged against him.
Russell P. Miller Jr., 47, was charged Oct. 11 with a misdemeanor count of official oppression after allegedly asking an officer to cite resident Mary Lubich-Riley at a borough council meeting with harassment for speaking out against Miller, the police department and borough council. That citation was ultimately dismissed at the magisterial district court level. Fayette County Chief Detective John F. Marshall filed the charge against Miller shortly after the harassment citation was dismissed.
Miller’s attorney, Michelle Kelley, argued Miller was acting as a private citizen and as a victim of harassment, not as an official. Out of 186 official oppression cases in Pennsylvania, Kelley said none of them were similar to her client’s case in that he asked an officer to cite the woman instead of citing her himself.
“There is not a single case that bears any similarity,” she said.
The statute says official oppression is committed if a person acting in official capacity subjects a person to illegal “arrest, detention, search, seizure, mistreatment, dispossession, assessment, lien or other infringement of personal property rights” while knowing that action is illegal.
Kelley said the statute would have to be broadened to include a third party conducting the illegal action so that it would fit Miller’s case. She added no evidence indicated Miller thought the action was illegal.
Assistant District Attorney Melinda Dellarose argued that Miller was acting in his official capacity – as the borough’s police chief – because he was at the borough council meeting in full uniform and telling one of his own officers to issue the citation.
She argued that if he was operating as a private citizen, he could have called state police and filed a report.
Fayette County President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. added Miller could have also filed a private complaint, but that would not have the force of the police department behind it.
“Exactly,” Dellarose responded.
Wagner said he will make a decision at a later date.