Category: News || By

At a heated meeting Wednesday night, City Council rejected a request from Councilman Paul Shelly Jr. to see if McKeesport's insurance carrier will pay his legal bills.

The 4-0 vote --- with Shelly abstaining and Councilors Loretta Diggs and Richard Dellapenna absent --- marked the first time council has discussed the case in a public meeting since Shelly's arrest in June on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, terroristic threats and defiant trespass.

Two of those charges were dismissed at a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Eugene Riazzi Jr.

. . .

Shelly has maintained that the charges stem from his attempt to mediate a dispute over a rental property, and therefore was constituent service performed in his role as a city councilman.

"I find a lot of things wrong with the assertions you made," Councilman Darryl Segina said.

"Whether you are innocent or guilty, Paul, that's not the point," he said. "I don't think it's within the scope of services of a councilman to mediate a dispute between a landlord and a tenant."

. . .

The city's home rule charter spells out the duties of a councilman, Segina said, and conflict resolution is not among them.

Shelly said a city resident specifically asked for his help as a city councilman. "I'm of the legal opinion that 90 percent of the duties we perform --- whether they're in the home rule charter or not --- are considered constituent service," he said.

But City Solicitor J. Jason Elash said it was unlikely that the city's insurance carrier would pay for Shelly's defense in a criminal case.

. . .

"This isn't someone suing him for liability for something he did in an official capacity," Elash said. "This is the state prosecuting him for a crime ... I don't think there's any way that an insurance carrier would pay this claim."

Following the meeting, Shelly issued a statement to reporters accusing Mayor Jim Brewster of "passing the buck" on the decision to city council.

"The message I take from their decision is that it is not, in their collective opinion, the job of a McKeesport councilor to provide constituent service, but they consider acting as insurance adjusters appropriate," Shelly said.

Shelly faces formal arraignment in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 19 on a misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats and a summary count of defiant trespass.