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Officials Confirm DA’s Probe of Evidence Storage
By Staff Reports
The Tube City Almanac
October 02, 2024
Posted in: Crime and Police News
Officials have confirmed that the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is investigating “irregularities” that were uncovered in the evidence room at the McKeesport police station.
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV said that the office of District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. had been asked to investigate whether money had gone missing from the evidence room.
“The circumstances in question pertain to an ongoing investigation and potential personnel matters, which limits my legal ability to comment,” McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
Cherepko said Zappala’s office was contacted by McKeesport police Chief Mark Steele following an internal audit of the evidence room.
“Upon the discovery of irregularities, we referred our initial findings to an external agency,” Cherepko said. “A thorough investigation is currently being conducted by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office.”
A representative of Zappala’s office said the district attorney is expected to address the investigation on Friday during a scheduled visit to the Mon Valley. The office declined further comment.
Two former McKeesport police officers currently face charges in separate investigations into the possible misuse of funds under their control.
Brenda D. Sawyer, 61, of North Versailles Twp., a one-time city police officer who served as regional director of state Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation & Drug Control, is charged by Westmoreland County officials with misusing funds from that office, including money seized as evidence during drug investigations, as well as cash that was to be used for undercover drug purchases.
Sawyer is currently free on $100,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Nov. 21 before Magisterial District Judge Henry Lee Moore in North Huntingdon Twp.
In a separate case announced the same day, a former McKeesport police detective, Joseph A. Osinski, 55, of Haler Heights is charged by the state Attorney General’s office with misusing funds from Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 91, where he served as financial secretary.
Osinski remains free on $50,000 bond pending formal arraignment on the charges Nov. 13 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
Originally published October 02, 2024.
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