Judge says no evidence Westmoreland DA favors the famous

A Derry Township man will serve three days in jail for driving his Dodge Charger 120 mph on Route 22 while drunk nearly two years ago after a judge rejected a defense argument that prosecutors gave preferential treatment to a local celebrity and unfairly rejected a bid by a “blue collar” worker to enter a jail diversionary program.

Attorneys for Paul Barnhart, 26, claimed former District Attorney John Peck played favorites when he allowed a radio play-by-play man for the Pittsburgh Steelers and University of Pittsburgh football and basketball teams charged with drunk driving to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program in 2020 and refused to offer the same deal to a “blue collar worker.”

Peck was defeated in last November’s election and new District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli continued the prosecution and reaffirmed the office’s refusal to allow Barnhart to participate in the program for first-time offenders. That would have enabled Barnhart to serve probation and have his record expunged without pleading guilty.

“I’m not going to grant a motion to force the district attorney to offer something they don’t think is appropriate,” said Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Christopher Feliciani on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Barnhart was drunk when police clocked him driving 120 mph on Route 22 in Derry Township. According to court records, Barnhart’s blood-alcohol level was 0.174 shortly after the early morning traffic stop, more than twice the limit motorists in Pennsylvania are considered to be intoxicated under the law.

Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker said the danger of driving at that excessive speed while drunk posed a substantial threat to the community and disqualified Barnhart from the diversionary program.

Defense attorney Robert Domenick argued county prosecutors were biased in favor of the famous and cited the drunk driving case of broadcaster Bill Hillgrove. Hillgrove, of Murrysville, was charged with drunk driving in 2020 after he crashed his SUV into a window at a local pharmacy in January 2020, an incident that resulted in no injuries.

Then broadcaster was allowed to enter the ARD program and was ordered to serve two years on probation. It was Hillgrove’s second time in the ARD program, having served a probation sentence for another drunken driving charge about two decades earlier.

“It’s not fair if justice is dispensed based on a person’s fame and status,” Domenick argued.

In rejecting that argument, the judge said there was no proof that the district attorney’s office, under past and present leadership, has shown any trends of bias in favor of local celebrity.

With the ARD program off the table, Barnhart pleaded guilty to two counts of drunk driving and a summary speeding offense. He was ordered to serve 72 hours in the county prison, a sentence that will begin March 4.

“I hope you learned a lesson that you can’t be driving like that. Thank God no one got hurt,” Feliciani said.