BEAVER, PA. Officials consider refiling charges against ex-guard
A state attorney general's office spokesman says a decision is expected soon.
BEAVER, Pa. (AP) -- State prosecutors are considering whether to refile corruption charges against a former Beaver County jail guard previously charged with mediating a bribe to get a police officer to change her testimony in an attempted murder.
William F. Alston III, 29, who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., was indicted by a state grand jury in February on a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. But at a preliminary hearing Friday, a district justice dismissed the charge, saying there was insufficient evidence that Alston helped broker the bribe. A decision on refiling the charges will be made in the "near future," state Attorney General's spokesman Kevin Harley said Monday.
Prosecutors had accused Alston of arranging a meeting at which Kim Lay, a former Aliquippa police officer, agreed to falsify her testimony against Anthony "Tusweet" Smith, 24, for a bribe of $13,000.
Smith was charged with shooting at Thomas Jeter in Aliquippa in 1998. Lay said she witnessed the shooting while off duty and reported it. The charges against Smith were dismissed after Lay testified at a preliminary hearing that she couldn't identify the shooter.
Lay, who also was a part-time guard at the jail, pleaded guilty to taking the bribe and was sentenced to three to 23 months in jail.
Lay testified Friday that another man, not Alston, set up the meeting at which the bribe was discussed, Alston's attorney said. Alston may have known about the bribery plot but didn't participate in it, said the attorney, Michael Sherman.
Alston had previously waived his right to a preliminary hearing on the charges because he was offered a plea bargain in which he'd receive a special form of probation program for first-time offenders, Sherman said. When the attorney general's office took back that offer, Alston asked for a preliminary hearing, the attorney said.
Harley said state prosecutors never offered Alston the plea bargain Sherman described and said they have "more than enough evidence" to proceed with the case.
Prosecutors last month refiled the attempted homicide charges against Smith, who faces a preliminary hearing Nov. 14.