Acquitted in cop's death, Ray Shetler eager for trial in assault case

A New Florence man previously acquitted of killing a police officer and now charged with assaults against law enforcement officials insisted in court on Monday he had no interest in delaying his upcoming trial.

Ray A. Shetler Jr. 37, issued instructions to push ahead with his scheduled trial in June as his lawyer continued to assess evidence in the case filed in the aftermath of a physical altercation with police officers and sheriff’s deputies last December in a Seward mobile home, his attorney Michael Garofalo told a Westmoreland County judge.

“Bring it on Leo,” Shetler said to Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro as he was led from the courtroom.

Shetler was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and disarming law enforcement officers following an altercation during which a sheriff’s deputy was injured as police attempted to take him in custody.

Officers said Shetler was found hiding beneath a folded futon covered with blankets. Police said he fought back and headbutted a sheriff’s deputy who leaned over to take him into custody. The deputy suffered head and shoulder injuries that required hospital treatment, police said.

Shetler also was injured. He was shot in the eye with a Taser and sustained facial injuries.

His trial is scheduled to begin June 20 before Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio, but the case could be pushed to August because of another trial.

Shetler’s trial is expected to take about a week to complete, Ciaramitaro said. He said at least 14 police officers and other law enforcement officials are expected to testify.

Shetler, who has been in jail since December and unable to post a $250,000 bond, may contend his speedy trial rights will be violated if the case lingers into late summer and will seek an early release from incarceration should his trial not take place in June, Garofalo said.

The charges against Shetler arose from an incident related to efforts to arrest him after he failed to appear in court for a hearing late last year to determine whether he violated terms of his probation for an unrelated theft case.

Shelter was convicted in 2018 of stealing a truck as he attempted to avoid capture after he shot and killed a New Florence police officer who responded to a domestic abuse call three years earlier in St. Clair Township.

Following a six-day trial in which Shetler was convicted of the truck theft, a Westmoreland County jury also found him not guilty of killing Officer Lloyd Reed. Shetler admitted to firing the fatal shots that killed Reed, but insisted at his trial he did not know Reed, who was in uniform, was a police officer.