A district judge yesterday dismissed arguments from defense attorneys and ruled there was enough evidence to hold state Sen. Robert Regola III for trial on perjury and other charges in connection with the suicide of a 14-year-old next-door neighbor who shot himself with the senator's 9 mm pistol in July.

	V.W.H. Campbell, Post-Gazette Sen. Robert Regola III and wife head to hearing yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

Clearly displeased at the outcome, defense attorneys Charles J. Porter Jr. and Duke George said they will file a habeas corpus motion after Mr. Regola is arraigned in a month or so in hopes of having a judge from Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court overturn Greensburg District Judge James Albert's ruling.

"If you have any common sense at all, there's not even a prima facie case regarding any of the allegations against the senator. It's a sad day in court today," Mr. George said immediately after the nearly two-hour hearing.

"There's no case, there's absolutely none," Mr. Porter offered. "You can't have a case based on speculation and innuendo and conjecture. There is nothing."

That wasn't the view of Judge Albert, who said the testimony he heard from three witnesses showed there was sufficient evidence to hold Sen. Regola for trial on four felonies -- three counts of perjury and one count of allowing possession of a firearm by a minor -- and two misdemeanors, false swearing and reckless endangerment.

	LISTEN IN: Westmoreland County District Attorney John W. Peck and Sen. Robert Regola III's attorney's Charles J. Porter Jr. and Duke George talk to the media after yesterday's hearing. Westmoreland County District Attorney John W. Peck talks about what he thinks about the case. talks about where the Troopers said the Senator said the gun was located. talks about how the Troopers interviewed the Senator by memory before taking notes. about there being a low standard for this peliminary hearing. Duke George, one of Sen. Regola's attorneys Peck was making statements that were not true. what Michael Stunja's role is in this matter where do you go from here?

Mr. Regola, 44, a first-term Republican senator from Hempfield, is charged with allowing his minor son Robert "Bobby" Regola IV, now 17, and Louis A.J. Farrell to have access to the gun eventually used in Louis' suicide. He also is accused of lying under oath about the gun's location and access in testimony during a two-day coroner's inquest into the death in February.

Mr. Regola, who had no comment after the hearings, remains free on $25,000 unsecured bond.

At the hearing, two Pennsylvania state troopers, John Zalich and Jared Slater, testified that after Louis' body was found by his father the morning of July 22 in the woods behind the family home, Sen. Regola said the gun found next to the body was his.

He told the troopers in separate interviews that Bobby had kept the gun in his bedroom until about three months before Louis's death, when he moved it to his own bedroom because of concerns about people seen partying in the woods behind the Farrell home.

However, in his testimony at the coroner's inquest, Sen. Regola testified that the gun was never in Bobby's possession or control, that it had been kept at his office before he brought it home and put it in his bedroom.

Another witness, Michael D. Stunja, 15, a freshman at Greensburg Central Catholic, testified that a year or two ago, while visiting his lifelong friend, Louis, the boys went to Bobby Regola's house where in his bedroom he showed them a 9 mm handgun with a loaded magazine.

Trooper Zalich testified that Louis had a key to the Regola house on July 21 because he was dog-sitting for the senator, who was out of town.

Bobby Regola did not testify at the inquest because he invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

In pointed cross-examination of Trooper Zalich, Mr. Porter asked what evidence he had that the senator had any knowledge that Louis knew where the gun could be found or that he was suicidal.

Trooper Zalich pointed out that even after being told that the gun was missing and knowing that Louis was the only person who had access to the house and that he had acted nervous when asked if he had been upstairs, Sen. Regola made no call to the police or the Farrell family.

"If he had contacted the Farrells about this we might not be in this situation," Trooper Zalich said.

After the hearing, Mr. Duke said that "everybody associated with this case has nothing but deep regret and remorse that this unfortunate incident happened, but by the same token what they're trying to do -- as a result of an unfortunate incident where all evidence led to the boy committing suicide -- is to ruin the senator, his son and his family's lives as a result of evidence just isn't there to prove any criminality whatsoever."

Earlier, before the hearing, about two dozen people, some affiliated with Cornerstone Ministries in Export where Sen. Regola attends, prayed for the Regola and Farrell families in the courtyard in front of the courthouse where the hearing was held.