Ex-jail counselor guilty of harassment
A Washington County judge Thursday found a former jail counselor guilty on a harassment charge stemming from a September 2015 confrontation with his ex-wife at her South Strabane Township home.
In rendering the decision, Judge Michael Lucas sentenced Jay S. Green, 44, of Canton Township, to three months of probation.
Harassment, a summary offense, was less serious than other charges Green faced when he entered the courthouse – initially for a jury trial on misdemeanor charges of simple assault, terroristic threats and reckless endangerment – before the prosecution dropped the more serious charges and Lucas dismissed the jury.
Green also faced an additional summary harassment charge Lucas would have decided, but that charge was also dropped.
In addition to probation, Lucas ordered Green to attend anger management classes, continue receiving treatment for alcoholism and barred firearms from being in his possession or in the house where he lives.
Police said Green, of 2257 W. Belmont Ave., pointed a long-barreled gun at Barbara Wertz, his ex-wife, at her house, 1196 N. Main St., on the night of Sept. 29 after he’d been drinking heavily.
Police were called to the house about 8:08 p.m. and arrived five minutes later to find Green inside and Wertz in her vehicle.
That night, Wertz indicated a semi-automatic assault rifle that was in a gun safe upstairs as the weapon with which Green allegedly threatened her.
The next day, she found a shotgun behind her bedroom door with its muzzle down and told an officer it may have been the weapon he used.
In explaining why she asked to drop misdemeanor charges against Green, Assistant District Attorney Kristin Clingerman said she learned Wednesday night that – pursuant to a protection-from-abuse order Wertz sought against Green – South Strabane police turned over multiple weapons they took from the house that night to Green’s father instead of keeping them in an evidence room.
Clingerman said following the trial she’d planned on presenting the shotgun and assault rifle to the jury to address Wertz’s uncertainty about which gun was used.
Both weapons have a fishscale pattern Green had painted on them and their stocks are similar.
With a gun allegedly pointed at her head, “It was reasonable that (Wertz) wouldn’t know which gun it was,” Clingerman said.
The couple’s 9-year-old son was in the house at the time of the incident, and Clingerman said the jury trial would have put him in the “very difficult position” of testifying against a parent.
Christopher Blackwell, Green’s attorney, contended that Wertz’s story that Green found a key to a gun safe in a drawer, climbed a steep set of stairs and came back down with a weapon didn’t line up with the incoherence Wertz said Green displayed that night.
Green denied pointing the weapon at Wertz.
“My immediate response was, ‘I did not have a weapon,'” he said he told police that night.
Blackwell contended Wertz made up the incident to compel her ex-husband to get help with his alcohol addiction.
The couple had divorced but were living together at the time.
Clingerman said it was “ludicrous” to suggest Wertz invented the story about Green pointing the gun at her, adding the incident permanently ended the couple’s “tumultuous relationship,” even though police had been called to the house at least six times before. One of those instances occurred when Green called the police on his mother. Wertz left with their children on three of those occasions, Clingerman said.
In handing down his decision, Lucas cited testimony he said was credible and supported the conviction of harassment – that Green asked if his ex-wife wanted him to shoot her and the dog, forced a confrontation with her, pursued her outside, screamed profanities at her when she got in her car and pounded on the vehicle.
Lucas dismissed jurors before they’d heard any of the proceedings.
The county jail board voted to fire Green Oct. 14.