GOA-backed Case Forces Allegheny County DA to Consider Charging Pittsburgh Mayor and City Council

By Caroline Thorman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Today, a Commonwealth Court three-judge panel ruled that Allegheny County District Attorney, Stephen Zappala, violated Pennsylvania’s Rules of Criminal Procedure by refusing to accept a private criminal complaint from four Pittsburgh residents related to the illegal gun control ordinances passed in April of 2019 by the Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Bill Peduto.

The ordinances themselves were struck down both in the Court of Common Pleas and on appeal to the Commonwealth Court. However, plaintiffs in the private criminal complaint alleged that Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh City Council also abused their office with the passage of these illegal ordinances, specifically by committing an act of “official oppression” as defined by Title 18, Section 5301 of Pennsylvania’s Consolidated Statutes. Public officials are in violation of this law when they deny or impede the exercise of any rights, and it is classified as a second-degree misdemeanor in the Commonwealth.

Frustratingly, when the plaintiffs attempted to file the private criminal complaint in April of 2019, the DA refused to physically accept and evaluate it as required by Rule 506 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. The plaintiffs then sued for a Writ of Mandamus to compel the District Attorney to

Source: Gun Owners of America