County marks domestic violence prevention even as it faces lawsuit
Barbara Miller/Observer-Reporter
Alexandra Brooks, prevention education coordinator for Domestic Violence of Southwestern Pennsylvania, was handing out purple ribbons, literature and signs after a Washington County Commissioners meeting Thursday in conjunction with domestic violence awareness month.
Tierne Ewing
For years, the Washington County commissioners have issued a proclamation near the beginning of October to mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
What was unusual Thursday was that they issued their proclamation in the wake of a vote in Harrisburg that would take guns away from alleged perpetrators, giving them to someone other than family members.
And the proclamation was read a little more than a month after the county was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in connection with one of the most notorious cases of domestic violence in recent Washington County history.
Kevin Ewing, 47, shot and killed his wife, Tierne R. Ewing, 48, after he abducted her from his mother’s home in West Finley in August 2016. He then fatally wounded himself.
Kevin Ewing had been free on $100,000 bond and also was ordered to wear an electronic home-monitoring device because of charges he had kidnapped and assaulted his wife earlier that summer.
Ewing’s mother, Rosalee Riggle, reported to police that her son, who had a gun, had gotten into a vehicle with Tierne Ewing and driven off. Riggle told police her son cut off his ankle monitor and handed it to her. She also told police he had held her and his wife in the basement at gunpoint for several hours before leaving.
On Aug. 29 of this year, Morgan R. Miller, administrator of the estate of Tierne Ewing, filed suit in Washington County Court against Riggle, three providers of ankle bracelet monitors and Washington County in what is known as a writ of summons. Although it names the plaintiffs and defendants, it gives no details as to why the suit is being filed. Calls to Miller’s attorney, John D. Perkosky, have not been returned.
County Solicitor J. Lynn DeHaven said of the suit after the commissioners’ meeting, “We were served, and we turned it over to our insurance counsel.”
One of the options open to the county is to formally seek to have the plaintiffs file a complaint.
“It was tragic, obviously,” DeHaven said, but the county’s position is that it is not liable for the events that unfolded.
Alexandra Brooks, prevention education coordinator for Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania, had addressed those gathered in the commissioners’ public meeting room just a few minutes beforehand.
“It seems there is never a time that domestic violence is not plaguing our headlines. I’d like to see a day when the headlines have changed, that there is no more abuse in domestic relationships.”
The question is, she said, how to get there.
“Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something,” she continued. “If everybody in the country could do just one thing to end domestic violence, we could start to see a sweeping change across our nation.”