Salem man arrested for 'open lewdness' in Westmoreland County Courthouse

A Salem man was charged Wednesday with disorderly conduct and open lewdness after he was accused of performing a sex act in a hallway outside District Attorney John Peck’s office in the courthouse.

Adam J. Amendola, 28, was arrested by county park police after a woman complained she encountered the man last week.

Officer Robert Hebenthal said the victim was walking toward the district attorney’s office on the second floor and saw a man in the hallway performing a sex act.

Hebenthal reported that the victim said the man was wearing red shorts and a ball cap “with a do-rag under it.”

Officers went to the second floor, but could find no one fitting the description. On the third floor waiting in the probation office, Hebenthal said officers located Amendola, who was wearing clothes that fit the description.

“(Amendola)was informed that he needed to come down to the park police main office to speak with me. Amendola refused and at this time was taken into custody,” Hebenthal said.

Hebenthal said the victim identified Amendola.

Amendola is awaiting trial on charges of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, and harassment after South Greensburg police said he used racial slurs during series of telephone phone calls to a borough man last May, according to court papers.

South Greensburg police said the victim reported receiving 20 or more phone calls daily during a six day stretch in May. The caller directed racial slurs and expletives toward the man, threatening to hang him and kill his family, according to court papers.

The man recorded some of the phone calls when he engaged the caller, police said.

Investigators were led to Amendola on Sept. 2 after obtaining phone records of the number making the calls and Amendola denied involvement, according to court papers. Patrolman Edward Grabb said he recognized Amendola’s voice as the one recorded by the victim during the threatening phone calls.

The victim told police he went to grade school with Amendola at Greensburg Salem, but they didn’t have any other connection, according to court papers.

Amendola pleaded guilty to harassment citations in five other instances between August 2017 and July 2020, according to online court records.

Amendola was ordered held in the county prison this week because his arrest violated terms of his six-month probation and 40 days of home electronic monitoring he was given Sept. 9 on two drunken-driving charges, according to court records.

Amendola’s hearing on the new complaint is scheduled Jan. 7.