Southwest Greensburg man ordered to stand trial on intimidation, retaliation, drug possession charges
Pete Scifo was curious about the ambulances on his Southwest Greensburg street.
He testified Tuesday he went outside May 31 to check out the commotion and saw a man — later identified as Robert Lee Friend, 58, of Southwest Greensburg — appear to pull something out of his pocket and reach into a set of bushes.
The next day, the same man approached Scifo on the sidewalk, he testified.
“He wanted to know what my name was, he wanted to know what I saw the previous day,” Scifo testified. “He wanted to know what I told the police.”
Scifo said Friend threatened him and yelled obscenities after he asked the suspect to leave his property.
On Tuesday in court, Friend repeatedly whispered to his public defender: “That’s a lie.”
District Judge L Anthony Bompiani admonished him.
“Mr. Friend, don’t do that,” Bompiani said. “Don’t talk while he’s talking.”
Bompiani ordered Friend stand trial on charges of intimidating a witness, retaliation and drug possession. Friend will remain jailed after Bompiani refused to change his bail. Bompiani revoked Friend’s $5,000 unsecured bail in the drug case after the intimidation charges were filed about a week later.
“The condition was set in the initial bond for there to be no further charges,” Bompiani said. “There were further charges, so I revoked the bond.”
Southwest Greensburg police Sgt. Todd Brant testified Scifo reported witnessing Friend appear to put something in bushes on Sewickley Street. The ambulance was responding to a drug overdose and a woman was revived by paramedics.
Brant found three stamp bags of heroin marked “LIFESAVER” in the bushes, he testified.
Public defender Jennifer DeFlitch argued the charges should be dismissed because Scifo didn’t see anything in Friend’s hand and the encounter the following day was “just a conversation on the sidewalk.”
“He didn’t see him actually holding anything in his hand, so there’s no proof that he ever possessed the stamp bags with heroin or that they were even his,” she said.
Bompiani said there was enough circumstantial evidence for the case to move forward.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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