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Davis faces contempt hearing after Commonwealth Court rejects her appeals

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Washington County Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis is expected to face a contempt hearing soon after the state Commonwealth Court quashed her appeals requesting to stop the proceeding from occurring.

The Commonwealth Court rejected the several appeals Thursday that Davis had filed late last year trying to block various orders from President Judge John DiSalle, while also asking for an emergency stay of the contempt hearing following the Nov. 24 incident when she attempted to stop sheriff’s deputies from transferring juvenile files from her office.

DiSalle learned Monday morning that the Commonwealth Court had ruled against Davis and closed her cases, allowing him to proceed with a contempt hearing. DiSalle said a contempt hearing would be “rescheduled promptly,” although he has not yet selected a date.

“Absent any further action from the appellate court, we’ll be rescheduling the contempt proceedings,” DiSalle said.

A worker in the clerk of courts office said Davis was in a meeting Monday afternoon and not available for an interview. Davis did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Davis has been at odds with the county commissioners and DiSalle over various staffing changes in her office last summer after she waived many of her duties and then had others taken away from her by the courts.

DiSalle threatened to hold Davis in contempt following the Nov. 24 incident when she attempted to stop sheriff’s deputies from taking juvenile case files stored in her office to the county’s Juvenile Probation Office. Davis claimed she was assaulted during the incident, while sheriff’s deputies said she resisted their efforts while they were trying to fulfill DiSalle’s order, prompting them to briefly handcuff her inside her office.

A contempt hearing was originally scheduled for Dec. 6, but delayed after the Commonwealth Court’s emergency stay temporarily halted the proceeding three days before it was set to begin. The court’s ruling Thursday to quash the appeals came a day after Washington County officials released surveillance video of the interactions between Davis and sheriff’s deputies in a courthouse hallway near Community Services office in the courthouse’s basement. The Observer-Reporter made separate open records requests for the video on Nov. 30 and Dec. 30, and was granted approval Wednesday for its release.

The 10-minute video of the Nov. 24 incident in the breezeway down the hall from the courthouse’s West Cherry Avenue entrance shows Davis surrounded by several sheriff’s deputies. Davis appears to try to leave the building while the deputies block her from exiting so they can take her to a hearing before DiSalle on the situation. Prothonotary Laura Hough can be seen nearby with her cellphone recording a video of the interaction, although the flashlight on her phone is activated and facing the eyes of the deputies.

Sheriff’s Capt. Bob Vaughan then slapped the phone in Hough’s hand after she approached him with the light near his face. Hough has accused Vaughan, who is the husband of Commissioner Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan, of assault and requested he not be permitted to enter her office.

“I think the video speaks for itself. He slapped me twice,” Hough said during a brief interview Monday, referring to the back and forth motion of Vaughan striking her phone.

About a minute later, Davis attempted to walk by the deputies, who then held her arms as she backed herself toward the wall. She then fell to the ground and laid on her back while pointing her cellphone up as the deputies looked on.

Paramedics were called to check on Davis, who could be seen lying on the floor in various positions for nearly 20 minutes. At times, she used her cellphone to apparently record videos and make phones calls, while also crawling on the floor in a futile attempt to leave.

After being checked by medics, she was then helped to her feet by Deputy Prothonotary Tina Whited and they left the building with Davis limping. Davis was stopped by deputies again outside the entrance, but was eventually permitted to leave to receive medical treatment at a local hospital.

The video is about 10 minutes long, but the elapsed time of the interaction in the hallway appears to last about 20 minutes because portions of the incident were not recorded since the surveillance camera is activated by movement. There are numerous portions in the video where Davis and the deputies are barely moving, prompting the video to jump several seconds. Some areas of the video are blurred at times to protect the identities of bystanders who are walking through the hallway, but Davis and the deputies can be seen throughout its duration.

Sheriff Tony Andronas, who was chief deputy at the time of the incident and can be seen in portions of the surveillance video, declined to comment.

District Attorney Jason Walsh referred the incident to the state Attorney General’s office Nov. 29. A spokeswoman for the attorney general confirmed at the time that the office had received the referral, but she declined to say Monday whether the incident is under investigation.

While it’s been nearly 11 weeks since the incident occurred, DiSalle said Monday it is important to continue with the contempt proceedings to get a full account of what happened that day. He said the transfer of all the juvenile files was completed that same day, although there continue to be issues with the clerk of courts office.

Visit observer-reporter.com to view the 10-minute surveillance video of the Nov. 24 interaction between Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis and the sheriff’s deputies.

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