7 hours Ago By Mike Jones
When Washington County Deputy Coroner Matthew Yancosek was first asked to review an Avella man’s death from a crash following a police pursuit in Mt. Pleasant Township a year ago, he was initially told that it was a slow chase that ended with a relatively minor impact. “I was told it was a slower speed chase – not a high-speed pursuit – and there was a ‘bump’ into a guardrail,” Yancosek testified during a hearing Monday as the coroner’s office tries to get more investigative information about the fatal crash on April 3, 2024.
Yancosek said he spoke to Mt. Pleasant Township police Chief Matthew Tharp and another officer about details about the incident after 45-year-old Mark Michael Miller died at Washington Hospital from injuries he suffered in the crash. But as he tried getting more information, he felt stonewalled until eventually receiving partially redacted videos of the dashboard camera from the pursuing police cruiser and body cameras from officers at the scene in the aftermath of the crash.
Yancosek said what he saw in those videos was much different than what he was initially told about the police chase, and District Attorney Jason Walsh has since acknowledged in a memo to Tharp justifying the officer’s actions that the chase on Route 50 reached 70 miles per hour and Miller’s vehicle went airborne upon crashing violently into a guardrail near Caldwell Road. Walsh also wrote in the memo that Miller was driving recklessly and sideswiped another vehicle before crashing his car, where an open container of alcohol and prescription drugs were located. The coroner’s office is now in a stand-off with the Mt.
Pleasant Township Police Department and district attorney’s office trying to get investigative information about the pursuit and crash in order to determine the cause and manner of Miller’s death, and whether the actions of the pursuing township police officer, Crystal Metalik, were appropriate. The coroner’s office said it’s been stonewalled trying to get those investigative materials – such as an official police report – prompting Coroner Timothy Warco to recently schedule an inquest last week into the death that has been delayed. Meanwhile, police investigators and prosecutors said such information is protected by statute from being released to the coroner since that office is not a law enforcement entity.
A more than two-hour hearing Monday afternoon before President Judge Gary Gilman at the Washington County Courthouse was held to determine whether police must turn over such investigative information or whether it’s legally protected. Numerous police officers, detectives and county prosecutors – including Walsh and Tharp – packed the gallery inside Gilman’s courtroom listening to arguments and testimony. Attorney Timothy Uhrich, who serves as the coroner’s solicitor, told Gilman they called the inquest that was originally scheduled for last Tuesday because they had struggled to get much information from investigators.
“Because we were unable to visit the (crash) scene, we had no facts except for what our chief deputy was able to discern that night,” Uhrich said, because Miller died at the hospital. Uhrich said Yancosek was only told it was a low-speed crash with a light impact into a guardrail. “These were the only facts in the case we had,” Uhrich said, adding that Miller’s autopsy told a different tale about what happened.
“His injuries did not match up with what we were told about the severity of the crash.” The coroner’s office originally subpoenaed documents for its investigation – which Gilman granted during two hearings last year – but they moved to hold an inquest in order to get compliance from police. But Mt.
Pleasant officials and the district attorney’s office are trying to stop Tharp from being compelled to turn over the official police report. Gilman indicated he thought the situation might all be moot now because Walsh wrote in the March 6 memo to Tharp that he justified the police officer’s actions and would not be prosecuting the case. “Once the chief law enforcement (official) of this county has made a ruling, it seems to me what the coroner wants to do is superfluous,” Gilman said.
“The complexion of this case has changed substantially. ..
. This is (Walsh’s) right, his discretion with his professional opinion of what he did.” Uhrich responded that they want compliance with the subpoenas so they can hold an inquest and make a determination on Miller’s cause and manner of death, along with whether anyone might be responsible for it.
“We don’t just serve the district attorney,” Uhrich said, mentioning that the state Attorney General’s office or even federal prosecutors could review it. “We have other entities that have prosecutorial powers.” Attorney Paul Krepps, who is acting as special counsel for Mt.
Pleasant Township and Tharp, said they are cooperating with the coroner and have given the office the police department’s policy on police chases and offered to provide unredacted videos of the incident. “We’re getting a picture here that the coroner is being kept in the dark, which is patently false,” Krepps said. Deputy District Attorney John Friedmann argued that the official criminal investigative records are protected and can only be released to other police agencies or prosecutors involved in the inquiry.
He added that the coroner’s office can perform its own investigation and ask police for witnesses for its own employee to perform interviews. But Uhrich said he expected any cooperation between the coroner’s office and the district attorney to be “very difficult” after the two sides had a protracted dispute in 2023 when a coroner’s inquest for a different incident involving a deadly encounter with Mt. Pleasant police ended with Warco suggesting that the officer should be charged with manslaughter.
Walsh justified the officer’s actions in shooting and killing 38-year-old Eduardo Lee Hoover Jr. in April 2023 following a lengthy police chase that ended in Washington. That inquest’s findings prompted Walsh to direct his detectives to raid the coroner’s office and Uhrich’s legal office in Carnegie to retrieve investigative files they were holding.
Gilman asked Uhrich to file a brief on the matter within 30 days and gave Krepps and Friedmann 20 days after that to respond. It’s not known when Gilman might rule on the matter of whether the investigative materials must be turned over for the inquest..
