A Rostraver commissioner is accused of disrupting a township Halloween event by threatening people and slapping a fellow commissioner in the face.

John J. Lorenzo, 43, of Rostraver was cited with two counts of harassment or physical contact, disorderly conduct and an additional harassment charge in connection with the Oct. 31 incident, according to state police.

A series of nontraffic citations filed Nov. 21 accuse Lorenzo of yelling obscenities, grabbing people by the shoulder and slapping township commissioner Jeffrey Johnson in the face “at a township-sponsored trick-or-treat event with multiple families and children present,” state police wrote.

“The defendant did create such an inconvenience to the public that he was escorted out of the area by (the) Rostraver Police Department,” the citation reads.

Lorenzo, a Republican, is enrolled in the state’s probationary Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program following prosecution on charges he created fake social media accounts and used “burner” phones in order to harass political opponents and rivals. Lorenzo was arrested a little less than a year ago and was accepted into the program for two years in mid-June.

Lorenzo directed questions to his attorney, Jeff Ries, who said his understanding of the Oct. 31 incident “is very different than what’s in these citations.”

Ries said Lorenzo “is adamant that he was not escorted out by the police at all.”

“The first we heard about this was in a letter from the township solicitor, and it did not rise to the level of these allegations,” Ries said.

Lorenzo’s first term as commissioner expires in 2024. After being elected in 2019, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He is the son of former township commissioner Nick Lorenzo, a Democrat who served in office for nearly 30 years before he was defeated for reelection in 2011. The elder Lorenzo died in 2014.

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