The oft-delayed Ray Shetler Jr. trial is finally scheduled to get underway in Westmoreland County Court tomorrow after Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio ordered last week that it remain on the trial schedule.
This is the eighth time the case has been scheduled for trial, with the previous seven postponed for later court action, even though Shetler originally demanded that the trial be held last June, just six months after the charges were filed against him.
The 38-year-old Shetler is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and single counts of resisting arrest and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer. He was found hiding in his girlfriend’s mobile home outside of Seward after he skipped a probation hearing. He brawled with police officers and sheriff’s deputies and seriously injured one of them, while suffering injuries himself when he was struck in the eye with a stun gun.
Shetler has claimed he was attacked by police in retaliation for his acquittal on murder charges after he gunned down St. Clair Township police officer Lloyd Reed Jr. in 2015. He was acquitted of murder charges but was found guilty of charges related to his escape attempt after the shooting.
