A new trial was ordered yesterday for a former Carnegie Mellon University professor who was sentenced last month for shooting at two Mt. Lebanon police officers, because the tipstaff at the trial may have improperly given advice to the jury.

The ruling was handed down by Donna Jo McDaniel, administrative judge for the criminal division of Common Pleas Court.

In April, a jury of nine women and three men convicted Edward Constant II, 61, of two counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault on police officers. He was sentenced to 29 years in prison.

The jury had been deliberating for some time when Mary Feeney, tipstaff to Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman, who presided at the trial, went to check on their progress.

Tipstaffs are in charge of maintaining court decorum and administering to the needs of the jury, among other responsibilities. Tipstaffs are not permitted to discuss cases with jurors.

But, according to a letter written by a juror to defense attorney Paul Boas weeks after the verdicts, Feeney was asked for advice concerning Constant's intent.

Feeney reportedly replied, according to Cashman after the hearing: "If you take a gun and aim it at 30 people, what do you intend to do?"

Feeney, a 13-year veteran in Cashman's courtroom, tendered her resignation yesterday. But Cashman said he will not accept it.

"She doesn't have to defend anything, because there's nothing to defend," Cashman said yesterday. "I expect her here tomorrow."

Cashman scheduled jury selection for the new trial to begin Aug. 20.

Constant, a former CMU history professor, was convicted in April for shooting at Officers Daniel Rieg and Jeffrey Kite during a violent, alcohol-fueled domestic disturbance at his Piper Drive home on May 26, 2002.

One bullet struck Rieg in the chest, which was protected by body armor, knocking him over a porch railing and into the Constants' front yard.

Constant's wife, Susan, was charged with reckless endangerment, obstructing the administration of law and hindering the apprehension of her husband in connection with the incident.

She had been scheduled for trial, but has been accepted into the court's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. If she successfully completes the program, she will not have a criminal record.