Sheet metal theft suspect’s case to proceed to trial
A Fayette County judge has denied a Uniontown man’s petition for dismissal of pending theft charges, saying that the delays in bringing the man to trial are not the fault of prosecutors.
Robert Showman, 35, represented by attorney David Kaiser, came before Judge Steve P. Leskinen on May 23, arguing that his right to a speedy trial had been violated and the charges should be dropped.
Showman is one of four men accused of stealing more than $600,000 worth of rolled stainless steel from their employer, Hranec Inc. in German Township, over a two-year period between June 2009 and May 2011. The men were charged with selling the metal to another company.
Leskinen explained in Tuesday’s opinion that he calculated 688 days since police filed the complaint against Showman. By law, the commonwealth has 365 days to bring a case to trial from the date the complaint is filed, but certain proceedings, including pretrial defense motions, do not count against that 365-day limit.
Excludable time in Showman’s docket comprises 98 days due to the continuances of his preliminary hearing, 378 days that a petition to dismiss charges for lack of evidence was pending, and another 65 days during which Kaiser was unavailable for trial because he was representing another client in another trial.
“Deducting that total of 541 days from 688 yields 147 days towards the 365 days permitted under the rule,” Leskinen wrote. “Thus, the commonwealth has at least 218 days from (May 22) within which to bring this case to trial.”
Kaiser argued previously that in December, Judge Nancy D. Vernon refused to sentence Showman in accordance with a plea agreement that called for 11½ to 23 months on intermediate punishment, and she also refused to allow him to withdraw his plea. According to Kaiser’s calculations, the case should have been called to trial by March 13, since the plea was neither entered nor permitted to be withdrawn. Had the plea been withdrawn, the prosecution would have been allowed another 365 days to try the case, but Kaiser contended Vernon specifically wanted no further delays in trying the case.
“There was apparently some confusion at the time the plea was rejected, and both counsel apparently believed that there was a difference between the ‘withdrawal’ of a plea and the ‘rejection’ of a plea, with withdrawal providing one year for the commencement of trial and rejection providing 120 days or less,” Leskinen wrote, but the law makes no such distinction and there is no reported appellate case creating a distinction.
Leskinen ordered the district attorney’s office to list Showman’s case for trial.