Connellsville magistrate moving to new location
The magisterial district judge office in Connellsville is moving to a new location with the benefits of additional security measures and other upgrades, officials said.
Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty Jr. said the new office for district 14-1-02 will reopen at its new location at 404 S. Pittsburgh St., April 2.
Among other benefits, he said the new building layout will allow for prisoners to be better separated from the general public. The current office, at 601 S. Arch St., has only one holding cell. Because male and female prisoners cannot be held together, female prisoners would be kept in the courtroom when prisoners of both genders were present. The new office location will have two holding cells, he said.
鈥淓veryone is kept separate, so we don鈥檛 have to co-mingle the general public with them,鈥� he said.
The new office also has additional interview rooms, allowing separate offices for the district attorney and defense attorneys to conduct meetings, he said.
Additional cameras will also be in place, he said. The new location will be set up to allow for paperless record keeping, part of a statewide transition rolling out over the year.
The building that once stood at the new address was dilapidated, he said.
鈥淚t was an old apartment building that had been sitting vacant for 20 years,鈥� he said.
That building was torn down and rebuilt for the new office. He described the new location as a beautiful building that will serve as an asset to the city.
The district serves the city of Connellsville and South Connellsville, Bullskin, Saltlick, Springfield and Connellsville townships.
The office is closed during the moving process. Phones are expected to be in service Tuesday. Magisterial District Judge Mike Defino Jr., of the Brownsville district, is on hand to handle emergencies in the interim.