Oct 24, 2024 By Mike Jones 5 min read

The state Superior Court has overturned a Washington County judge’s contempt-of-court conviction against a Donora man who was jailed for five days after asserting his Fifth Amendment rights by refusing to testify during a homicide hearing in late 2022.

The appellate court on Tuesday reversed Judge John DiSalle’s decision to hold Elijah White in contempt and said he “abused his discretion” during the court proceeding nearly two years ago.

White was subpoenaed to testify at the Dec. 9, 2022 preliminary hearing for Keaundre Crews, who is charged with shooting and killing 29-year-old Jaisen A. Irwin outside Bob’s Tavern in Finleyville two months earlier. However, White refused to answer basic questions about the case posed by Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh because his own attorney believed investigators considered him a suspect at the time, although he’s never been charged in connection with the homicide case.

During that hearing, Walsh asked District Judge Phillippe Melograne to hold White in contempt, but the magistrate declined to do so and let him leave without testifying about the case. But Melograne warned White that he might be held in contempt at a later date by a Washington County Court of Common Pleas judge.

Walsh then pursued contempt proceedings against White, who is now 25, and a hearing was held before DiSalle on Dec. 29, 2022. DiSalle, who was president judge at the time, held White in contempt, sentenced him to spend five days in the Washington County jail over the New Year’s holiday weekend, and ordered him to comply with future subpoenas in the homicide case.

White’s attorney, Noah Geary, appealed the conviction in January 2023 and later filed a federal lawsuit against Walsh and DiSalle last October claiming false imprisonment.

In its order Tuesday, the state Superior Court determined that DiSalle was wrong in his decision because Melograne never ordered White to testify at the preliminary hearing. It’s unclear whether Melograne could have compelled White to testify regardless once he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“Here, the record indicates that the magisterial district judge did not order White to answer the Commonwealth’s question. Rather, the magisterial district judge stated that he believed he did not have the authority to hold someone in contempt and excused White from the hearing. The Commonwealth concedes that the magisterial district judge did not instruct White to answer the question,” Judge Maria McLaughlin wrote in her opinion on behalf of the three-judge panel.

The opinion added that “the court’s order must be definite, clear, specific and leave no doubt or uncertainty in the mind of the person to whom it was addressed of the conduct prohibited,” meaning the lower court “abused its discretion in finding White in contempt.”

Geary said he expected the conviction would be overturned, but he expressed disappointment that the Superior Court did not come down harder on DiSalle and Walsh.

“They had to reverse it. They didn’t have a choice. That they made no comment at all how outrageous this was was really disappointing,” Geary said in a phone interview Wednesday. “They had to reverse it. What these two people did was absolutely insane.”

DiSalle declined comment when reached by phone on Wednesday, while Walsh had little to say about the Superior Court’s decision.

“The magistrate didn’t say the right words,” Walsh said, alluding to the appellate court’s opinion that Melograne never ordered White to testify. “He didn’t say those magic words, I guess.”

The appellate court’s ruling comes less than a month after a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Walsh and DiSalle. U.S. Senior District Judge David Cercone wrote in his Sept. 27 opinion dismissing the federal lawsuit that both had immunity, despite him having serious misgivings about their actions.

In his 34-page opinion, Cercone said DiSalle “acted maliciously and with the intent to subvert a fair and neutral application” of White’s constitutional right against self incrimination “for the benefit of Walsh’s prosecutorial agenda” in the Crews case.

“It does not matter that (DiSalle’s) finding against plaintiff was egregiously wrong; it does not matter that plaintiff suffered a deprivation of his constitutional rights and a loss of liberty and great harm from that deprivation,” Cercone wrote in his opinion. “What matters is that Judge DiSalle undertook a judicial act in a setting where he had subject matter jurisdiction. He did so and is immune from liability in a civil action for damages. Plaintiff’s federal civil rights claims against Walsh suffer from similar shortcomings pursuant to the doctrine of absolute prosecutorial immunity.”

Geary, who filed the federal lawsuit on Oct. 31 a week before election day when Walsh’s name was on the ballot, appealed Cercone’s decision Tuesday to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Geary argued that neither should be granted immunity for violating White’s rights.

“The granting of total immunity to DiSalle and Walsh does not mean they did not falsely imprison Elijah White,” Geary said.

Meanwhile, Walsh said he felt vindicated that the federal lawsuit was dismissed.

“I said from the beginning that it was meritless nonsense,” Walsh said. “I said it then and now. It was politically motivated.”