Washington County, Pa., District Attorney Lied and Abused His Position in Death Penalty Case “To Win an Election,” County Coroner Says 

CONTACT: Andy Hoover, 717-256-1293, andy@hoovercomms.com

PITTSBURGH - In a new filing before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Washington County, Pa., Coroner S. Timothy Warco alleges that District Attorney Jason Walsh lied to a county judge and coerced the coroner to file a fraudulent death certificate for a deceased child in an effort to advance Walsh’s political fortunes. His allegations are supported by a similar claim from Deputy Coroner Matthew Yancosek.

According to the filing, Walsh compelled Warco to oversee the examination of Sawyer Clarke, a two-month-old child who died at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh in May 2022. Warco quotes Walsh saying, “You know that I need this to be a homicide, I need it to win an election.”

The allegation was revealed today when the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation supplemented its previous petition to the state Supreme Court on behalf of Jordan Clarke, who is accused of criminal homicide in Sawyer Clarke’s death and is facing the death penalty, to include Warco and Yancosek’s affidavits. The Atlantic Center’s petition was filed last week on behalf of Clarke and Joshua George, another man facing capital charges in Washington County in a separate case, arguing that the court must intervene to supervise death penalty cases in the county.

“In coming forward, the coroner and deputy have provided the level of transparency and accountability that this situation demands,” said Frances Harvey, staff attorney at the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation. “DA Walsh has used this case and the death penalty more broadly as vehicles to advance his political career. He is unfit to continue to pursue death sentences and, frankly, unfit to be a prosecutor.”

“District Attorney Walsh abused the power of his office for his own personal gain,” said Marc Bookman, executive director of the Atlantic Center. “He has utilized the death penalty as a threat while trampling the due process rights of people accused but not convicted of crimes. This is one of many problems with the death penalty, that one self-aggrandizing politician can engage in shockingly unethical behavior, obstruct justice, ignore the rights of the citizens he was elected to serve, and do it all to win an election. The state Supreme Court must intervene.”

Sawyer Clarke, who is Jordan Clarke’s son, died on May 24, 2022, at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh; thus, jurisdiction over his death belonged to the Allegheny County medical examiner to determine the cause and manner of death. Warco says that he explained this to Walsh, who responded by saying that he could obtain a court order to move jurisdiction to Washington County. 

According to Warco, Walsh misrepresented the place of death as Peters Township, Washington County, to Washington County then-President Judge John DiSalle, convincing the judge to issue an order moving jurisdiction to the Washington County coroner’s office.

Following the autopsy, Dr. Jennifer Hammers, a contract forensic pathologist with the county coroner’s office, determined the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head but could not determine the manner of death. That finding was forwarded to the Allegheny County medical examiner, who ruled that the manner of death “could not be determined.”

In today’s filing, Warco says that Walsh was unhappy with that finding and compelled Warco to file a fraudulent death certificate finding that the manner of death was homicide.

In the underlying petition, the Atlantic Center states that Walsh has pursued capital charges in a majority of homicide cases since taking office in 2021 and frequently does not reach the evidentiary standards for first-degree murder and aggravating circumstances, both of which are required for death penalty cases, at even the preliminary stages of cases, when the commonwealth’s burden is lower than at trial. The petition asks the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to implement a variety of oversight mechanisms, including a halt on the capital charges in Jordan Clarke and George’s cases and assigning an out-of-county judge to review all capital charging decisions by Walsh’s office.

The supplemental filing with Warco’s affidavit is available at this link.

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