A controversy in Western Pennsylvania stemming from allegations that a judge ordered her court reporter to alter transcripts from a murder trial became more complicated Thursday after the court reporter’s lawyer said the court reporter denies altering the transcript and plans to sue one of the attorneys alleging misconduct.
Defense attorney Noah Geary has claimed — to the Law Weekly and in filings with the state Superior Court — that Washington County Common Pleas Court President Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca ordered her court stenographer — Toni DiNardo — to alter trial transcripts in a high-profile murder case from 2008. Geary represented convicted triggerman Gerald Szakal, who is appealing charges of second-degree murder. O’Dell-Seneca, who denied the accusations in a filing with the Superior Court, is a former president judge of the Court of Judicial Discipline.
