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A former part-time Southwest Greensburg policeman ordered to stand trial in Westmoreland County last month on an official oppression charge is facing multiple criminal complaints in Fayette County.
Last week, James Edward Shaw, 54, of Mt. Pleasant Township waived his right to preliminary hearings on multiple criminal charges of false imprisonment of a minor, harassment, reckless endangerment, simple assault and four counts of illegal use of wire communications while working as a Connellsville School District police officer in 2020.
According to documents filed by Connellsville police Detective Lt. Thomas Patton, the mother of a high school student filed a complaint with police over Shaw’s treatment of her son “for a vaping violation” as the youth was walking to meet his ride after classes at the vocational technical school Oct. 16.
A former police officer for the Connellsville Area School District waived charges that he assaulted a student and illegally recorded a conversation to Fayette County Court on Thursday.
James E. Shaw, 54, of Connellsville also waived a second case in which he is accused of illegally recording people.
In the case involving the student, Shaw and another school officer saw a student vaping on Oct. 16, police said. Shaw took the boy by the wrist, and when the student tried to pull away, âShaw slammed him onto the paved roadway,â the criminal complaint alleged.
The boy was handcuffed and taken to the school office, where his mother, the vice principal, Shaw and the other officer met. Police contended Shaw threatened to charge the boy with resisting arrest and illegally recorded the conversation on his cellphone.
Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty Jr., has announced has his candidacy for re-election.
His office serves Bullskin Township, the City of Connellsville, Connellsville Township, Saltlick Township, South Connellsville and Springfield Township.
Haggerty has been serving as district judge since 2010, and has presided in over 53,000 cases, including over 5,500 criminal cases.
He is currently the legislative chairman for the Special Court Judges Association of PA. He is the current president of the District 7 Special Court Judges Association, which encompasses Fayette, Greene, Westmoreland and Washington Counties. Haggerty also served as president and vice president of the Fayette County Special Court Judges.
Haggerty is a 1988 graduate of Connellsville Area High School and holds an associateâs degree in criminal justice from Westmoreland County Community College. Haggerty is a graduate of the prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigationâs National Academy. Prior to wi