Westmoreland sheriff doesn't want investigation into office mess

Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert said he doesn’t want an investigation into who trashed his offices in the courthouse.

“Let’s not prolong this. I want to stay positive and move forward,” Albert said Thursday after the offices were cleaned.

Three deputies and two maintenance workers, Albert said, spent two full days and used multiple Dumpsters to remove the mess discovered in the department’s administrative offices.

When he took office Monday at the start of his four-year term, Albert found trash strewn on desks and floors, a pile of the former sheriff’s uniforms crumpled beneath a DVD of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” shelves and book cases filled with junk and boxes of outdated arrest warrants stacked in front of office doors.

“Now, it looks great. They finished up (Wednesday),” Albert said.

County officials don’t know who was responsible for the mess. That section of the office is not covered by surveillance cameras, and administrators haven’t identified a suspect through electronic door lock swipes from county identification cards, Albert said.

The new sheriff discovered the mess just before he fired two members of former Sheriff Jonathan Held’s management team. Albert defeated the two-term Republican in November’s election.

Held denied any involvement, even suggesting that Albert staged it.

On Thursday, Albert said he rejected a request from county detectives to investigate.