 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Judge quits robbery case involving tipstaff's son
Thursday, March 08, 2001 By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A Common Pleas judge yesterday recused himself from considering a request for bond reduction for the son of a court employee charged with robbing a dry cleaner in Shadyside.
David Lineburg III, 22, whose father is a tipstaff in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, is being held on $50,000 bond in the Allegheny County Jail.
Judge W. Terrence O'Brien said he knew the defendant's father, David Lineburg II, who has been a tipstaff for several years.
"I don't want there to be the appearance of impropriety," O'Brien said during a hearing yesterday.
It will be up to Criminal Court Administrative Judge Gerard M. Bigley and county President Judge Robert Kelly to assign another judge to hear Lineburg's case.
A clerk at the dry cleaner told police that the younger Lineburg had a pistol visible when he entered the shop Dec. 15 and demanded money. He took about $70 and left, police said.
According to court records, at least one employee at the shop knew Lineburg, and he eventually was arrested.
He was released on $100 bond, pending a preliminary hearing. At his arraignment on robbery charges, Lineburg was ordered not to contact anyone at the cleaner during his release.
But at a City Court hearing Friday, police said employees at the cleaner reported that Lineburg had telephoned the shop trying to persuade them not to testify.
City Magistrate Daniel Butler not only ordered Lineburg held on the robbery charge, but he increased his bail to $25,000.
Witnesses said that Lineburg then ranted about being treated unfairly and said that he hated living in America. At one point, they said, Lineburg tried to bolt from the courtroom. Butler then increased his bail to $50,000.
Lineburg's defense attorney, David B. Cercone, seeking yesterday to have his client's bail reduced, described his client's behavior as a childish reaction.
|
||||||||
