Officer injured in MDJ shooting named Masontown’s new police chief
When Scott Miller comes back to work for Masontown police next week, he’ll do so as the borough’s police chief.
Miller, injured last September in a shooting at a magisterial district judge’s office, was tapped to lead the police department after the retirement of its chief earlier this year.
Council voted 6-0 to promote Miller, a sergeant, to the role effective April 22. Miller was shot in the hand during his response to a gunman who opened fire at the Masontown office of Magisterial District Judge Daniel Shimshock on Sept. 19.
Patrick Dowdell, 61, was scheduled to appear before Shimshock for assault, strangulation and terroristic threats charges and, according to state police, shot a police officer and three others before he was shot and killed by a German Township police officer who was nearby.
Several officers responded to the incident, but Miller was the first person Dowdell confronted.
Miller will take over for longtime chief Joe Ryan.
Borough secretary Robin Core said Miller’s rate of pay will be $24.40 per hour plus longevity pay, which she estimated would be less than 50 cents per hour.
In another 6-0 vote, council approved PMI Services to assume code enforcement duties as an independent contractor at a rate of $26 an hour, Core said. Code enforcement had been Ryan’s responsibility.
Council also voted 4-3 to appeal a final determination made by the state Office of Open Records last month granting a council member’s appeal following the denial of his right-to-know request seeking responses from Ryan about his time worked and activities while working. The appeal will be filed in Fayette County Court.
Council member Sam Chahl filed a Right-to-Know Request with the borough in February seeking admissions about the days, dates and time Ryan worked, whether Ryan had a conversation with the mayor about officers viewing pornography while on duty, and whether Ryan accessed adult websites while on duty.
Chahl’s request clarified that the purported admissions would have been filed in a federal suit filed last year by borough Council President John Stoffa and his wife Rosa against the borough, Petrus and Ryan, claiming that police unlawfully searched the couple’s home in January 2018 and seized various items after he suggested the department and its computers should be audited.
The borough had argued that the records Chahl sought did not exist and were additionally barred from disclosure by a protective order entered in the Stoffa case even if they did exist, according to the Office of Open Records final determination in Chahl’s favor. The Office of Open Records said it asked the borough to clarify whether records existed but were subject to the protective order or did not exist and that the borough reiterated that no records exist but would be subjective to the protective order if they did.