Westmoreland County Assistant DA Gongaware retires after 27 years as prosecutor

As a Westmoreland County assistant district attorney for nearly three decades, Wayne Gongaware said his work has always been about seeking justice for victims.

“When you have a victim case, getting a conviction and helping the victim, that's a big one,” said Gongaware, 66, who retired on Friday after 27 years as a prosecutor.

A North Huntingdon native, Gongaware was not immediately drawn to the law when he graduated from high school in 1968. He said he briefly tried teaching after earning a bachelor's degree in English literature and writing from Penn State University, but he decided to pursue a law degree a few years later from the University of Pittsburgh.

“Teaching wasn't for me, so I wanted to try something different,” he said.

Admitted to the bar in 1983, Gongaware said he had a private practice for several years before joining the district attorney's office in 1989.

“I wanted to do trial work, and I knew I would get it if I came here,” he said.

Gongaware estimated he handled approximately 100 trials during his tenure. The last was on Thursday, when he appeared before Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio for a nonjury trial in a case he lost.

“No one wins them all, and each one you lose is disappointing,” he said. “If it's a victim trial, it's very disheartening, to say the least.”

The work of a prosecutor can be stressful at times, Gongaware said, but it's also rewarding.

His most memorable — and satisfying — case, he said, was that of Steven Sistek, a Ligonier Township man who in 1998 tortured and killed his 3-year-old stepson, Lonny Biedrycki Jr.

Sistek, 39, entered a guilty plea and wrote a statement admitting to torturing the boy, but to secure a life sentence, Gongaware had to prove to a judge that the killing rose to the level of first-degree murder.

Following a two-day trial, Gongaware obtained the first-degree murder conviction against Sistek — and a life sentence.

Another memorable case involved a man who was accused of child molestation, but whose case had dragged on through the courts for longer than usual. Just when it was set to go to trial, a judge remanded it to district court, setting up another potentially yearlong delay, Gongaware said.

Then one day, he said, he was reading a newspaper when he noticed a story detailing an unusual incident in which the defendant, who worked on a road crew, was killed at a worksite.

The defendant had parked his truck on a hillside and was run over when the brakes “let loose” as he walked in front of it, Gongaware said.

“Needless to say, he was killed,” he said. “Things like that, it just makes you wonder.”

District Attorney John Peck said Gongaware will be missed.

“He's one of the pillars of the office for the last 27 years,” Peck said. “He's often acted as a mentor, or guide, for younger lawyers on how to try cases.”

The district attorney said Gongaware handled everything from child abuse and sex assault cases to homicides.

“He's tried those cases very well on behalf of this county and the district attorney's office,” Peck said.

Gongaware said he will continue to practice law in retirement, but on a part-time basis so he can spend more time with his wife, Cindy.

The couple, he said, has three grown children, Alana, Ashley and Christina. The youngest, Christina, recently obtained her law degree and passed the bar, he said.

“It would be difficult for me to retire and go home and just do nothing,” Gongaware said. “I have to keep active.”

Liz Zemba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-601-2166 or lzemba@tribweb.com.