DA executes search warrant on Washington County coroner
Walsh, Warco at odds over documents from inquest into fatal police shooting

Four state police troopers and another four county detectives executed a search warrant at the Washington County coroner’s office Tuesday morning to retrieve investigative files used in last month’s inquest into a police shooting that left a motorist dead.
The warrant requested by District Attorney Jason Walsh is part of a criminal investigation that purportedly cites “tampering of public records or information” as the reason for the search of his fellow county row officer’s headquarters.
Coroner Timothy Warco was not in the office at the time of the search shortly after 11 a.m., but said Wednesday that he directed his staff to cooperate with investigators in retrieving the requested files. The warrant apparently focused on investigative files Warco held when he conducted a coroner’s inquest into the April 2 shooting by Mt. Pleasant Township police Officer Tyler Evans that killed 38-year-old Eduardo Lee Hoover following a lengthy chase from Burgettstown that ended on Jefferson Avenue in Washington.
Walsh immediately called the killing justified, but Warco announced on Oct. 26 following the two-day inquest that he believed Evans should be held “criminally liable” and Walsh should file charges against the police officer. That led to a simmering feud in recent weeks that appears to have boiled over and culminated with the search warrant.
“They raided my office with an affidavit that was signed by the president judge. They took all the files related to the shooting on Jefferson Avenue,” Warco said Wednesday. “I prefer to cooperate, and they took the files.”
Timothy Uhrich, who is the coroner’s solicitor, said they received a letter last week from the district attorney’s office “directing” them to return all investigative files associated with the coroner’s inquest within 24 hours. When they failed to respond, the district attorney apparently requested the search warrant from President Judge John DiSalle, who granted it either Monday or Tuesday. Uhrich said the affidavit attached to the search warrant accuses them of “retention and possession of records,” but did not go into more detail.
“That’s all we know at this point. That we are illegally and criminally retaining the police reports,” Uhrich said of the accusation in the search warrant.
The search warrant, which can be sealed by court order for up to 60 days, was not at the Clerk of Courts office when a reporter went there Wednesday to request it. That may indicate investigators still have not returned it with the inventory of what was recovered, which also can be withheld from public view for the next two months unless charges are filed beforehand.
Walsh declined to comment about the contents of the search warrant or the apparent feud between him and Warco in recent weeks.
“You’re going to have to ask the coroner that. I can’t answer why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Walsh said. “But I’ll take every action I need to prosecute crimes and preserve criminal investigations, because criminal investigations will not be compromised.”
Warco said he does not know why there was a need for a search warrant or what criminal activity could possibly be alleged to enable DiSalle to approve it.
“I don’t know what is happening,” Warco said.
But it’s the second time in the past week that the district attorney and coroner have butted heads over an investigation.
Last week, state police and the coroner’s office were called to investigate an apparent suicide, but Uhrich said the trooper at the scene refused to release the suicide note to the coroner’s staff. In response, the coroner’s office would not allow the trooper to attend the autopsy – which Uhrich said is a decision at the “sole discretion” of the coroner – prompting Walsh and the rest of the district attorney’s office to meet DiSalle in his chambers on Nov. 22 to request a petition for review.
“Things were getting elevated and Tim didn’t need all of this going on, so he put off the autopsy until things calmed down,” Uhrich said.
That situation is not directly tied to the issue involving the search warrant.
It’s not known whether charges will be filed against the coroner or his staff in connection with the investigative files being held at the office, or whether the retrieval of the documents through the search warrant was satisfactory for Walsh.
“I can’t comment on it,” Walsh said. “It’s sealed.”