A Penn Township woman will serve up to four years in prison for assaulting multiple police officers in two separate cases.
Darla Jean Ressler, 43, pleaded guilty in four cases, including allegations of access device fraud and institutional vandalism, as well as two cases in which police said she was combative and violent as officers attempted to take her into custody.
Police said that after Ressler was arrested in connection with a theft from the Hempfield Walmart on Sept. 6, 2023, she initially attempted to flee through a home’s window before being taken into custody.
According to court records, officers said Ressler became irate and kicked two state troopers as they tried to force her into a police vehicle.
In a second incident three months later, Jeannette police said Ressler again attempted to flee from officers seeking to take her into custody on another warrant. Ressler was uncooperative and was finally subdued by officers. Police said she later claimed she was injured and was evaluated at a local hospital.
As police attempted to take her from the hospital to the Westmoreland County Prison, they say Ressler head-butted an officer, striking his nose, as they struggled to place her in the police vehicle.
Ressler pleaded guilty last week to three counts of aggravated assault. Additional charges of resisting arrest, fleeing and escape were dismissed.
Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger sentenced Ressler to serve concurrent sentences totaling two to four years in state prison.