Another date has been set for the trial of 38-year-old Ray Shetler Jr., the Saltsburg man accused of brawling with law enforcement officials during an incident in 2021.
After a ninth continuance was granted last week, Westmoreland County Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio has scheduled Shetler’s trial to begin October 2nd at 9 a.m. No exact reason was given for the most recent continuance, but officials with the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office said it could have been from an overcrowded court schedule.
Shetler is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and single counts of resisting arrest and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer after he was found hiding in his girlfriend’s mobile home outside of Seward in December of 2021 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. A jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of charges related to his escape attempt after the shooting.
