East Vandergrift man gets probation for harassing district judge with late-night phone calls

An East Vandergrift man accused of harassing Allegheny Township District Judge Cheryl Peck Yakopec with a string of late-night phone calls in November pleaded guilty Monday.

Tyler Drew Zidek, 25, of East Vandergrift faced four harassment charges filed by Lower Burrell police for making 13 calls to the district judge’s landline starting after midnight on Nov. 22, according to a criminal complaint.

Zidek was arraigned Jan. 30 on the charges before District Judge Jason Buczak and released from custody on a $25,000 nonmonetary bond, according to court records.

Zidek accepted a plea agreement that was presented during his March 27 preliminary hearing before Buczak.

“This happened around Thanksgiving and one of his family members did reach out to me to apologize, but I have not heard from him or seen him (Zidek) since, which is a good thing,” Yakopec said.

Yakopec said Zidek appeared in court with an attorney and agreed to accept a plea that was offered.

Zidek will serve two consecutive one-year terms of probation with the condition that he have no contact with the judge or her family and staff.

“Looking at his prior record and having known him over the years as a defendant in my court, I feel that he needs mental health treatment that includes anger management, which are also conditions of his probation,” Yakopec said.

The judge noted that Zidek already is undergoing such treatment as part of the conditions for his release from custody from a prior conviction.

Zidek pleaded guilty in January 2022 to two counts of simple assault for body-slamming a teenage girl at the Westmoreland Mall in 2019. He was sentenced to four years of probation, court records show.

Nina Martinelli of DeRiso DeRiso Suher & Jeffries in Pittsburgh, who is listed in court records as Zidek’s lawyer, could not be reached for comment.

Yakopec was at home Nov. 22 when she began receiving a string of 13 phone calls after midnight, she told the Tribune-Review.

She picked up one of the calls but hung up immediately when the man began uttering expletives. When the calls continued, she took the receiver off the hook.

Detectives from Lower Burrell and Westmoreland County learned that the caller was using an application to hide his true phone number and identity.

The calls were traced to Zidek’s home after investigators got warrants to search telephone company records, according to his arrest papers.

Police said Zidek was questioned Jan. 10 and admitted to making the calls to the judge’s home, telling investigators that he made them to “inconvenience her like she inconvenienced me.”

He told police he had been in her courtroom several times over the years and that her staff was “corrupt and he wasn’t treated fairly,” according to a criminal complaint.