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3/7/2007 3:31 AM

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PITTSBURGH - A state senator whose handgun was used to kill his teenage neighbor should not face charges because evidence indicates the boy took his own life, the senator's attorney said.

Charles Porter cited evidence presented at a two-day inquest last month in a letter to Thomas Farrell, an attorney who presided over the hearings. The letter was released Monday with other written arguments by lawyers.

"The overwhelming physical evidence thus suggests that Louis Farrell in fact shot himself," he wrote.

The teenager was found shot in the head July 22 in woods behind his home and the neighboring home of state Sen. Robert Regola, whose 16-year-old son, Bobby, was his friend. The senator's 9 mm pistol was by his side.

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Attorney Farrell, who is not related to the victim, is planning to recommend to the coroner whether to rule the death an accident, suicide or homicide. In a Feb. 26 letter to attorneys, he questioned whether the death could be anything but suicide.

No charges have been filed in the case.

The county coroner is scheduled to announce Thursday his recommendations to the district attorney, based on the findings of the inquest.

Farrell repeated concerns over the credibility of testimony by the senator and his brother, referring to their "evasiveness" on the witness stand and inconsistency between Regola's testimony and his statements to state police, among other things.

In a written response, District Attorney John Peck said he agreed the shooting in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, was an apparent suicide.

He said there was no evidence Bobby meant to help Farrell kill himself or knew Farrell wanted to do so.

But he said the senator violated state firearms law by allegedly allowing his son to keep the handgun, and that more serious charges may also be warranted because the senator's conduct showed "conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk."

Peck's conclusion that Regola illegally delivered a firearm to a minor is a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison.

Porter, however, wrote that there is no evidence that Sen. Regola or his son were reckless or grossly negligent.

"As the evidence appears to reflect that this death was a suicide, there cannot be any finding of involuntary manslaughter, which is a subcomponent of homicide, and not suicide," he wrote in the letter dated March 2.

He also responded to Farrell's concerns about testimony related to the location of the gun, saying phone records "corroborate that very testimony in a strong and compelling way."

"Given this corroborative evidence, I would ask that you retract your comments concerning the credibility of the senator and his brother, and to make a recommendation that the manner of death in this matter was suicide, and that no criminal charges be recommended against any individual," Porter wrote.

The Republican senator testified that he kept the gun in his bedroom for a couple of months before Farrell was killed and previously stored the weapon at his father's home.

Two state troopers testified that the senator earlier told them he had kept the gun in his son's room until a couple of months before the shooting. A friend of both boys testified that he saw the gun in Bobby's room a year or two before the shooting, and that Bobby also had shown ammunition to him and Louis Farrell.

Bobby Regola declined to testify at the inquest, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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