In a new court filing this week, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller continued arguments in her civil suit against the county and current and former county officials.
Parks Miller’s attorney Bruce Castor, who is also the state Solicitor General, filed a brief opposing the county’s motion to dismiss Parks Miller’s amended complaint, which alleges a Fourth Amendment search and seizure violation.
Last month attorney Mary Lou Maierhofer– representing the county as well as Commissioner Steve Dershem, former Commissioner Chris Exarchos, former County Administrator Tim Boyde and former County Solicitor Louis Glantz — filed to dismiss Parks Miller’s complaint, claiming that it did not follow U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew Brann’s instructions on how she could file an amended complaint and essentially continue her lawsuit.
Parks Miller filed the lawsuit last year after she alleged county officials, defense attorneys and others had used allegations of a forged judge’s signature on a fake bail order in a sting operation to try to drive her from office because of an acrimonious relationship
In May, Brann dismissed most of the claims in Parks Miller’s lawsuit, which had charged defamation, malicious prosecution, legal malpractice and other claims in a 13-count complaint against a dozen defendants. Brann said she could amend her claim to bring the search and seizure complaint against Boyde, Glantz, Dershem and Exarchos as individuals, rather than in their official capacities. Brann also stipulated that to bring the complaint against the county, she would have to allege a policy of custom of illegal searches and seizures.
Maierhofer argued Parks Miller’s second amended complaint did not meet those conditions. Castor’s filing this week called that a ‘straw man,’ stating that ‘official capacity’ claims were removed in the amended complaint, and Commissioner Michael Pipe, the only commissioner who had been sued in his official capacity, was removed from the complaint.
Regarding an alleged policy of illegal searches, Castor argued that Dershem and Exarchos created that policy by instigating a search of Parks Miller’s office.
‘As commissioners and official policymakers, the illegal search and seizure instigated and coerced by Defendants Exarchos and Dershem represents the official policy of Centre County,’ Castor wrote. ‘Both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals have recognized that an official with policymaking authority can create official policy, by making a single decision…’
In 2013, Parks Miller worked with Pennsylvania State Police and the Office of the Attorney General to conduct a sting operation after receiving information that a prison inmate sought to hire a hit man to kill Assistant District Attorney Nathan Boob. Parks Miller had a fake bail order prepared for the informant and took it to Judge Pamela Ruest to sign after explaining the circumstances.
Parks Miller’s former paralegal alleged that Ruest’s signature had been forged, and Ruest told a criminal defense attorney that she was not sure if it was her signature. Another defense attorney took the forgery complaint to Bellefonte Police and Parks Miller referred the case to the Office of the Attorney General.
Castor said Glantz was aware the OAG had taken the case, but told the County Commissioners there was no investigation under way. Castor’s filing alleges that the commissioners, Glantz and Boyde ‘exerted political, financial, and other pressure on the Bellefonte to apply for and execute a search warrant on Plaintiff’s office and the contents of her electronic storage devices for a matter they knew lacked probable cause as a matter of law.’
Castor also states that the defendants knew Ruest was aware of the sting operation and had signed the bail order but did not disclose that to police, who executed the search warrant on a Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. He wrote that media were given advance notice, ‘ensuring maximum humiliation to plaintiff,’ and that Parks Miller believes it was the defendant county officials who gave that notice.
A grand jury ultimately determined that the signature was, in fact, Ruest’s and there was not intent by Parks Miller to harm another.
Castor argued that the search and seizure in Parks Miller’s office was illegal because it violated her reasonable expectation of privacy as established by the Supreme Court. He alleges that the defendants violated her Fourth Amendment rights ‘by seeking a seeking a warrant, knowing that it was supported by falsehoods, and had critical omissions that were material to the finding of probable cause.’
