New Westmoreland County sheriff finds offices trashed

Newly installed Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert found a surprise when he arrived at work Monday morning.

Stacks of boxes filled with old arrest warrants blocked the door to his administrative suite of offices, trash was strewn on floors and desks, and the former sheriff’s dirty uniforms were piled beneath a DVD of the movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

“I thought it was disgusting. You would have to think it was intentionally done just to distract us,” Albert said.

Albert, a Democrat from New Alexandria, officially took control of the office Monday from two-term Republican Jonathan Held, whom he defeated in last fall’s election. Albert said he had been rebuffed in efforts to tour the office prior to his term starting this week.

Held denied any involvement in the office trashing and suggested Albert fabricated the situation.

“It sounds like it was staged to me. Maybe he’s seeking attention. Things were well-organized and well-kept when I left,” Held said.

Tension between the old and new administrations had been boiling in the months leading up to November election. During the campaign, Albert called Held’s stewardship of the department an “embarrassment,” and continually called attention to the more than a dozen lawsuits filed against the office by current and former staffers.

Albert also continually referred to the ongoing criminal prosecution of Held by the state’s Attorney General’s Office, alleging the sheriff forced on-duty department staffers to work on his previous reelection bid.

Despite those hard hard feelings, Albert said he was surprised when he came to the department’s basement office in the courthouse to find it disheveled and the doors to his personnel office barricaded.

“We couldn’t get into the door,” Albert said, noting that he and other deputies were forced to use an external door from the street to gain access rather than the entrance inside the courthouse. “We’re trying to get everything done. We’re making progress, but this will set us back.”

Held said his last day at the courthouse was Jan. 2, when he left his old uniforms neatly folded, trash properly discarded and nothing out of place.

“You’d think he’d (Albert) have bigger things to do. It’s like a high-school mentality,” Held said.

Albert retained most of Held’s staff of more than 70 full- and part-time deputies, but he did fire Held’s office manager and Chief Deputy Denise Appleby. Albert said he will hire retired District Judge Roger Eckels to fill the post.