Guilty verdict against Westmoreland sheriff turns into mistrial after juror changes mind

The public corruption trial against Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held ended in a mistrial Friday — after jurors initially returned to a Greensburg courtroom and said they found him guilty on two counts.

Then the judge polled the jurors, asking each whether “guilty” was their verdict. The first five said yes.

But then Juror No. 6 replied, “Not really.”

That man noted he was the last “holdout” among the 12 panelists.

Senior Common Pleas Judge Timothy Creany of Cambria County, who is presiding over the case, then ordered the panel back to the jury room to continue deliberations.

Before doing so, Creany stressed to Juror No. 6 that he not “surrender a strong conviction” but consider the opinions of other jurors.

About 30 minutes later, the jury returned to the courtroom and the Juror No. 6 said he could not be swayed into a guilty vote.

Creany immediately ended the trial.

Held, 44, of Hempfield, is charged with a felony count of conflict of interest and theft of services. He allegedly directed his office staff to perform political work for his re-election campaign while on duty with the county.

The judge on Thursday dismissed another theft count after testimony concluded.

Deputy District Attorney Bobbi Jo Wagner said a final decision on whether Held will be retried will be made soon.

“I suspect we will likely retry the case,” Wagner said.

Defense attorney Ryan Tutera said Held continues to maintain his innocence and, speaking for the sheriff, declined to discuss whether he will be a candidate next year to run for a third term in office.

“This is a man of faith. We had belief. We knew what the right result was: a finding of a hung jury because these people couldn’t agree,” Tutera said of the mistrial.

Juror No. 6 declined to comment as he left the courthouse.

During closing arguments Friday morning, Tutera told jurors that Held was the subject of a political witch hunt and the target of political adversaries.

Prosecutors characterized the two-term Republican sheriff as an opportunist who sought to take advantage of his staff for political gain.

During his closing argument, Tutera attempted to discredit the 15 witnesses, most of whom are current and former sheriff’s department staffers, who he claimed lied to investigators about Held’s role in the political activities in the office.

“Could it be his supporters, his onetime friends, took advantage because they didn’t want to do it on their own time?” Tutera asked.

He suggested the allegations were trumped-up charges from disgruntled staffers who initially thought they were currying favor and later erroneously believed they were being punished for speaking with investigators.

Staff worked voluntarily on campaign chores that included soliciting donations for fundraisers and seeking sponsors, Tutera said.

Held did not testify during the four-day trial and the defense presented no evidence.

“This is about a politician, about a man not liked even by his own party. That’s not a reason to convict him. It’s a reason to vote him out of office,” Tutera said.

The prosecution’s case against Held involved allegations about work his office staff performed leading up to shooting competitions in 2015 and 2016 to support the sheriff’s campaigns.

Held was re-elected to a second term in 2015.

Wagner argued that testimony from witnesses proved that Held personally directed his office staff to work on fundraising efforts.

“His campaign headquarters address is listed as a P.O. box because he had phones, computers and staff at the Westmoreland County Courthouse,” Wagner said.

The campaign work by sheriff’s department employees cost taxpayers at least $2,400 in salaries, in addition to the use of office equipment such as cars, phones and computers, she argued.

“Jonathan Held is not acting for the good of the office,” Wagner said. “He was acting for the good of the election.”

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.