A Westmoreland County judge on Tuesday granted Rostraver Commissioner John Lorenzo’s appeal of two summary harassment citations that Lorenzo said ultimately will have little impact on his political career.

Prosecutors agreed to what amounted to a plea bargain to resolve the appeal without a hearing.

Senior Common Pleas Court Judge Richard E. McCormick upheld the conviction to one count of summary harassment and ordered Lorenzo to pay a $25 fine. The judge granted Lorenzo’s appeal and dismissed the two remaining citations.

“I already won in the court of public opinion. The voters already felt comfortable in my ability and elected me to a second term,” Lorenzo said. “The voters saw it for what it was when they elected me.”

Lorenzo was originally found guilty of harassment at a hearing last spring in connection with what police described as a confrontation with public officials at a community Halloween party on Oct. 31, 2022. The convictions were related to charges he slapped one fellow office holder in the face and verbally harassed another and the township’s manager.

Lorenzo, 44, won one of three seats nominations in the Republican primary last May to serve as a Rostraver township commissioner. He was unopposed in the November general election and is now serving in his second term in office.

The judge ordered Lorenzo to have no abusive contact with his victim.

“He just wants the voters of Rostraver and the other elected officials to know they can work together and this will allow him to move forward and do that,” said defense attorney Tim Andrews.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo will continue to attend the commissioners’ public work sessions remotely for the next several months.

As a condition his two-year probation sentence related to additional charges filed against him in 2021, Lorenzo was barred from attending those meetings until May. He is permitted to attend public voting meetings in person.

Lorenzo, in June 2022, was admitted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time nonviolent offenders after he was charged with creating fake social media accounts to harass political opponents and rivals. Under terms of the jail diversionary program, Lorenzo was not required to plead guilty to those offenses and those charges can be expunged from his criminal record at the end of the probation term.

Lorenzo has continued to deny any wrongdoing and blamed his legal issues on personal and political disagreements.

“I’m not a very emotional guy. Ultimately, the people will decide what’s right and wrong and what’s true or not,” Lorenzo said.

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