Jan 10, 2017 2 min read

A Washington County judge has turned down a Cecil Township woman’s bid to have a memorial stone placed back in Cecil Township Park pending resolution of her lawsuit that alleges its removal ensued from an illegal meeting of township supervisors.

Judge Michael Lucas said in a 16-page memorandum and order filed Dec. 29 that evidence presented by Jennifer Andreis Moninger – whose father, Gary Andreis, was a candidate for township supervisor before his death in 2015 – “has fallen short of the exacting standard this court is required to apply concerning a request for a mandatory preliminary injunction.”

Lucas found testimony given at a two-day hearing in September didn’t show “the occurrence of a ‘meeting’ conducted in violation of the Sunshine Act.”

A memorial stone bearing Andreis’ likeness was removed from the park by township employees in July.

Township supervisors had voted in March to approve placement of a memorial to Moninger’s father in the park, but employees undertook its removal without a public vote by supervisors. Moninger alleges three of them – Chairman Thomas Casciola, Vice Chairman Eric Sivavec and Elizabeth Cowden – violated the Sunshine Act by convening in private and deciding to have the memorial removed.

The township has contended the monument’s removal was an “administrative action” and Moninger hadn’t shown the private meeting ever occurred.

In rejecting her request for a preliminary injunction, Lucas cited language in a brief by Moninger’s attorney, Jesse White, who admitted there was “no direct evidence that this order was given by the Defendants and the Defendants have not offered evidence that it was not them.”

White went on to argue that because “they have vehemently defended the act of removing the monument, a clear inference can be made that Defendants are responsible for its removal.”