Even though his bond was reduced to $1, a man charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer as he was being taken into custody on an outstanding warrant will remain in custody until his trial.
On Monday, Westmoreland County Judge Meghan Billik-Defazio rejected a defense request to lift a detainer for Ray Shetler, Jr. that has kept him in custody. Shetler has been in jail since December of last year when he was arrested for failure to appear in court for a probation violation hearing. After several days of searching, authorities found him hiding in a trailer in St. Clair Township near the border of Indiana-Westmoreland counties. Deputy sheriffs and state troopers arrived to take him into custody, but he fought with authorities, injuring one deputy. Shetler himself was injured when he took a taser to the eye.
In October, Judge Billik-Defazio reduced Shetler’s bail to $1, saying that Shetler’s speedy trial rights were violated. He’s posted the bail, but he remained behind bars on the detainer.
Shetler’s attorney said that Shetler should be on house arrest with a GPS tracking device, but prosecutors said that Shetler’s violent interactions with authorities and documented violations of probation terms should have disqualified him from probation. Billik-Defazio said that she was not confident in Shetler’s probation compliance.
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