A judge is expected to rule later this year whether the landlord of the Pet Adoption League in South Huntingdon again violated the terms of a court order barring her from disruptive behavior at the no-kill animal shelter she founded and previously operated.

During a daylong hearing Wednesday before Westmoreland County Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr., staff and volunteers testified that despite the 2015 court order, property owner Barbara Flanigan, 68, continues to harass, taunt and trespass at the shelter near Yukon.

“It's very unnerving, and it makes you not want to go to work,” said shelter manager Sarah Jo Smith.

Flanigan founded the shelter in 1991 and was ousted in 2013 by the board of directors. The shelter has continued to operate on property owned by Flanigan under terms of a 99-year lease signed in 2001 that requires it to pay her $1 annually for rent.

Since her ouster, Flanigan has repeatedly been cited by police for harassment and other offenses at the shelter. She pleaded no contest in May to a downgraded summary count of trespassing and was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

In January 2016, McCormick fined Flanigan $1,000 for being in contempt of a previous order that barred her from disruptive or harassing activity at the shelter, which is several hundred feet from her home.

Smith testified Wednesday that Flanigan has again defied the court order and recounted dozens of incidents during the last year in which Flanigan is accused of threatening staff and volunteers, harassing shelter visitors and posting derogatory statements on signs at the property and on the internet.

Smith said Flanigan harassed a class of children with autism who visited the shelter in April to read to animals in the kennel.

At one point during the hearing, Flanigan stood up and declared: “I am a horrible person, OK. I admit it. Just do what you're going to do.”

Later, Flanigan testified that she did not intend to violate the judge's order and that she didn't understand its provisions. She also refuted most of the allegations.

“I would like nothing better to see a resolution to this, but I don't know how it can be done,” Flanigan said.

McCormick is being asked to find Flanigan in contempt of court for a second time and said that if he does so, he could order her to serve jail time and pay the shelter's legal expenses.

The judge said he will issue a ruling after attorneys for both sides file written legal arguments.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.

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