The third-ranking commander in the Beaver County Sheriff's Office will resign from his post following an ongoing internal investigation into misconduct by members of the department.
Daniel "Pete" Short, a 17-year veteran of the department, has yet to hand in his official letter of resignation, but "he will be leaving," said Chief Deputy Dave Matthews, who is conducting the investigation with county sheriff Felix DeLuca. Matthews would not elaborate on the investigation.
Short's departure comes in the midst of a state grand jury investigation into a number of aspects of Beaver County's law enforcement community, including the sheriff's office. The state Attorney General's Office opened the investigation after the murder of Aliquippa police officer James Naim last March. The grand jury has been meeting in Pittsburgh monthly since April.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has reported that Short and another sheriff deputy, Antoine Horton, are targets of the probe. The Trib reported that witnesses had been questioned by the grand jury about Short's and Horton's handling of an inmate who had been released from prison into the custody of the sheriff's office so he could attend his father's funeral.
Questions about that incident and another incident involving two alleged drug dealers at an Aliquippa bar called I-hops led the sheriff's office to conduct the internal investigation.
DeLuca, who would not discuss the details of his investigation, has said he began it last fall shortly before he testified at the state grand jury. He would also not discuss his testimony.
Yesterday, DeLuca would not discuss the details of Short's departure, saying he would not speak on advice of the department's solicitor. He said nothing has been finalized with Short, but he said he expects the matter to be settled by early next week.
Matthews said he did not know the details of the agreement between Short and the county. He said the department's solicitor, the county's solicitor, the sheriff and Short's attorney were handling that.
Reached at his home, Short, 41, would not comment, referring all questions to his lawyer, Arnold Klein. Klein did not return repeated phone calls for comment.
Short, who coaches football at Aliquippa High School, has not been reporting to the Sheriff's office regularly over the last week and sources say DeLuca gave Short an ultimatum, either resign voluntarily or get fired.
The incident involving Short and a state prisoner, Vance Walker, came to light when grand jury witnesses said state police questioned them about whether the sheriff's office gave the inmate's family special favors by not charging them or charging an extremely low fee for taking him into custody during his release.
County records show the department charged the family $200 for four hours of work conducted by two deputies over the two days of the wake and the funeral.
The grand jury witnesses, who included Walker's sister and mother, a former Aliquippa councilwoman, were also questioned about whether sheriff's deputies allowed Walker to spend time alone with his girlfriend at a house near his mother's. Walker's sister, Lisa, denied that allegation.
Other law enforcement sources said the incident at I-hops, which occurred in December, 2000, involved Short, Horton and a third deputy. Investigators are looking into whether the three followed proper procedure filing a police report about the incident and whether confiscated evidence was properly maintained. Although the deputies took at least one man into custody at the time, the man was later released and no formal arrests were made.
