A former Westmoreland County probation officer has a preliminary hearing Oct. 19 for allegedly having inappropriate contact with a man she was supposed to be monitoring after his release from the county prison in 2018, according to court documents.
Mary Jo Borelli, 57, of Jeannette, is charged with one count of official oppression by county detectives in connection with the alleged “intimate” relationship she formed with the inmate after his release from the county prison between June 2018 and June 2019.
Det. Randy Gardner said in court documents that Borelli was assigned to connect the inmate to home electronic monitoring in his Derry Township home to serve the remainder of a jail sentence.
“The victim stated that (Borelli) then started to text him constantly, over and above what was required to report to her. The victim reported that Borelli would come to his house in the evenings and spend hours,” Gardner said.
“He stated that they did not discuss his legal situation and the talk was all personal,” Gardner wrote in court documents.
According to court records, the victim told Gardner that Borelli claimed during the relationship that she would help him with his ongoing legal situation, but he subsequently discovered about one year later that she “merely” informed the assistant district attorney handling his criminal case that he had no violations while connected to the home monitoring device.
Gardner alleges in the criminal complaint that Borelli “threatened to subject the victim to arrest, detention, search and seizure when the victim tried to end the relationship.”
Attempts to contact Borelli and her private attorney, Brian Aston of Greensburg, were not successful.
Sharon Bold, the county’s chief probation officer, declined comment.
According to records in the county controller’s office, Borelli was initially hired as a temporary employee with the county in January 1993, eventually working at the county prison and the county purchasing department.
She eventually took a job as a legal secretary trainee in the probation department in 1998 and became a probation officer in 2016, according to county records. At the time of the termination of her employment with the county in November 2019, as the investigation was unfolding, records said Borelli was earning $40,615 a year.
