Gilpin supervisors ask Diebold to resign as constable

Gilpin supervisors want former Leechburg police Chief Michael Diebold to resign as the township’s constable.

“This is due to his felony status. We don’t feel he is fit for constable,” said Supervisors Chairman Charles Stull.

Diebold, 41, was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail after pleading guilty in Westmoreland County Court to soliciting sex from an undercover state Attorney General’s Office agent posing as a 14-year-old girl. He was released from jail in January.

Diebold lived in Gilpin when he was elected constable, and voter registration records for him still list a home address along Gilpin’s Fork Church Road. Diebold was required to register as a sex offender upon his release from jail, and a registry maintained by state police lists a home address along Siberian Avenue in Leechburg.

Stull said township officials sent Diebold’s attorneys a letter in January, asking that Diebold resign from his constable post. The request was renewed this month, Stull said.

“We are also looking into the legality of him serving as constable,” the supervisor said.

If Diebold doesn’t resign or respond to the request by the next supervisors’ meeting on March 11, the supervisors will ask an Armstrong County judge to remove him from the position, Stull said.

Attempts to contact Diebold were unsuccessful.

Constables serve warrants from district courts and get a percentage of the fines assessed.

In Gilpin, criminal and some civil cases are handled by District Judge James Andring, whose office is in Leechburg.

“It’s up to the district judge to decide who serves as constable for his DJ office,” Andring said.

He said Diebold has already been decertified to carry a handgun or act as a police officer.