Mayor files civil rights suit against judge and DA's office, says theft case was filed 'to get even'
The mayor of a Pennsylvania town has filed a federal civil rights suit against a local judge and the Washington County district attorney’s office.
The suit says the defendants pursued a felony theft case against Monongahela Mayor Robert Kepics, which has now been dropped, because District Judge Mark Wilson disliked the mayor and, as the lawyer representing Kepics puts it, “used this as an opportunity to get even,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. The Observer-Reporter also has a story.
At issue was a $3,935 loan made to the mayor and his wife by longtime friends in 2011.The Kepics had repaid nearly half when the friends approached Wilson for help formalizing the debt in a written contract.
Kepics says in his Pittsburgh suit that Wilson persuaded the lenders to pursue a criminal case in late 2012, then pressured the DA’s office into filing it.
After Kepics was charged, he appeared before Wilson and, the suit alleges, the judge set bond at $5,000 so that Kepics would have to spend several hours in jail before he could arrange his release.
The articles don’t include any comment from the defendants or their legal counsel.
