After 27 years, John Peck walks away with long legacy as Westmoreland's district attorney

John Peck stood before a Westmoreland County jury in early December and for the next 40 minutes argued for a conviction.

It marked the last time Peck would do so as the county’s district attorney — a job he’s held since 1994. He leaves at year’s end after failing in November to win a seventh term in office.

“I’m so fully committed to every case that, until I read it in the paper, it never crossed my mind it was the last trial,” Peck told the Tribune-Review. “You have to be completely committed to try a case.”

The 74-year-old lawyer has been prosecuting cases since 1981, first as a part-time assistant, then as the county’s elected district attorney. It’s the only job he ever really wanted and one that he grew into after an eight-year stint working across the aisle as an assistant public defender.

Peck is a trial lawyer, and that’s the way he approached the job as district attorney. For decades, he took on the highest-profile trials but also served as the lead prosecutor in cases that don’t always make headlines. When he wasn’t standing in front of a jury, he was reviewing case files and legal precedents from stacks of law books.

Common Pleas President Judge Rita Hathaway worked with Peck as an assistant district attorney and then for him after he was appointed to replace John Driscoll as the county’s top prosecutor.

“In my 33 years as a trial attorney and a judge, John Peck is the finest trial attorney I have ever seen,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway has presided over some of Peck’s most notable cases, including those of the six Greensburg roommates who were convicted in the 2010 torture and murder of a mentally disabled woman and the conviction of a Harrison man sentenced to death for the 2017 killing of New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw.

‘Kill for Thrill’

As an assistant district attorney in 1984, Peck took over the prosecutions of “Kill for Thrill” murderers John Lesko and Michael Travaglia. The two were tried and convicted for a murder spree in which they killed two men, a woman and a rookie police officer between Christmas 1979 and New Year’s 1980.

Peck, who was not the prosecutor when the cases first went to trial in 1981, was assigned to prosecute the cases again after an appeals court vacated death sentences originally imposed by jurors. Peck successfully argued for death sentences against Lesko in 1995 and Travaglia a decade later.

Travaglia died in prison in 2017. Lesko continues to challenge his conviction and death sentence. Peck traveled to Philadelphia last summer to argue before a federal appeals court in Lesko’s latest appeal.

As prosecutors across the country have turned away from seeking the death penalty, Peck continued to push for capital punishment in cases where he determined it applied. In the past year, he filed notice to seek the death penalty against two defendants: one charged with killing an infant and another accused in the shooting deaths of a Penn Township couple.

“I have a sworn responsibility to uphold the law,” Peck said, noting the death penalty remains on the books in Pennsylvania. “These are cases where I thought the defendants couldn’t be rehabilitated.”

‘Tremendous public servant’

For Peck, it’s always about the job and the law.

Those who work with him say Peck is the ultimate professional, but also a mentor and colleague — a man who, despite his tough outward demeanor in the courtroom, also has a sarcastic side and who at rare times even displays a bit of humor.

Tony Marcocci, a detective in the district attorney’s office, has been on the job almost as long as Peck. Marcocci spent years working undercover and is one of the few office employees who has successfully bucked Peck’s strict dress code, which requires men to wear dark suits, white shirts and ties when in the office and in court.

“I think he just gave up on me,” Marcocci joked.

Marcocci recalled a trial in which he sat next to Peck, who wasn’t pleased with what he was hearing on an audio recording of a drug deal. “He was busting my stones because I wore cowboy boots that were clicking as I walked in the parking lot,” Marcocci said. “The voices were just mumbles, and all you could hear were these boots.”

Peck always has been more than serious about his job.

He hasn’t changed his daily routine in decades. He drives to Greensburg from his home in New Kensington and starts every day by attending Mass at Our Lady of Grace Church. He then heads to the courthouse, where he is usually the first to arrive at the office by 7:30 a.m. It’s not unusual for Peck to be the last one to leave, long after the sun sets, according to staffers.

Driscoll, whose election as a county judge in 1994 created the opening in the district attorney’s office that Peck filled, still calls him a friend. For about 40 years, they lunched together at least once a week.

“I have known dozens of district attorneys over the years, and John just stands above everyone. He’s a tremendous public servant,” Driscoll said.

Stephen A. Zappala Jr., Allegheny County’s district attorney since 1998, has worked with Peck for more than two decades.

“He has been very passionate about the people of Westmoreland County, and his time as DA has been impactful and effective for his fellow citizens,” Zappala said. “John is a good man, and I salute his years of service and wish him a long, happy and healthy retirement.”

Peck’s commitment to his cases and crime victims and his dedication to the job, working long hours and on weekends, is what stood out to Driscoll.

“He would take three days off and call it a vacation,” Driscoll said.

Like Peck, Dante Bertani served more than 40 years as a public servant. Bertani, the county’s first chief public defender, hired Peck in 1972 and then became a regular opponent. It wasn’t unusual for lawyers to pack courtroom galleries to watch them battle over cases that, at times, sounded more like barroom arguments than legal proceedings.

“One of the first cases I tried against John, I ended up winning. In his closing, John said he worked for me and learned from me. When I won, I told him I didn’t teach him everything,” Bertani said. “He got mad at me and didn’t talk to me for a couple of weeks.”

But there was always a backdrop of respect.

“John was always very tough. He wasn’t easy and didn’t give anything away,” Bertani said.

‘Steward of the office’

It’s the politics that might be Peck’s least favorite part of the job. But politics is in his blood.

His father served more than a dozen years as county sheriff, until 1980. His sister still serves as a district judge in Lower Burrell.

“Politics for him was a way of life,” Peck said of his father. “I always considered myself a lawyer, not a politician. I don’t think about politics. It should never be part of this office.”

His arms-length view of politics may be, in part, why Peck was unable to win another term in office. He was defeated in November by Republican Nicole Ziccarelli, who is set to take over in January.

Peck said he has no regrets about the campaign. And although he accepted defeat, he intends to remain on the job through the end of his term. He spent much of his last weeks in office preparing for court hearings scheduled before year’s end.

“I am a steward of the District Attorney’s Office, and I am consumed to finish the job before I leave office,” Peck said. “I’ll miss the job, but it’s not the end of life. Next to my family, it’s extremely gratifying and fulfilling.”