A Donora man who claims he was jailed for five days for invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination is suing Washington County’s district attorney and president judge.

Elijah White, 24, filed the federal lawsuit on Tuesday including claims for false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, due process violations, conspiracy, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It names as defendants Washington County Interim District Attorney Jason Walsh, who is up for election on Nov. 7, and President Judge John DiSalle.

DiSalle said he could not comment because an appeal on the matter is pending.

Walsh on Tuesday called the lawsuit “frivolous.

“It’s meritless nonsense,” he said. He noted that the defense attorney who filed the lawsuit, Noah Geary, donated $5,000 to Walsh’s opponent, democratic nominee Christina Demarco-Breeden.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that out,” Walsh said.

But Geary, in a 34-page lawsuit, alleges judge shopping and conspiracy between Walsh and DiSalle in finding his client in contempt of court and sending him to jail.

According to the lawsuit, White was the subject of two search warrants stemming from a fatal shooting outside of Bob’s Tavern in Finleyville on Oct. 10, 2022.

Two other people were charged in that case, but White had interacted with the shooting victim about 30 minutes earlier at another bar, the lawsuit said.

Walsh subpoenaed White, “who was obviously and clearly a suspect in the murder, although uncharged,” to testify at the Dec. 9 preliminary hearing for the two defendants, the lawsuit said.

White hired defense attorney Ryan Tutera, who attended the hearing with him, to represent him.

The lawsuit alleges that Walsh refused to offer White immunity for his testimony, so Tutera instructed his client to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination if called to testify.

When Walsh called White to the witness stand, the prosecutor asked White if he recalled the night of the shooting, and White answered, “I plead the fifth.”

Walsh subsequently argued to the district judge, Phillippe Melograne, that White’s assertion of the Fifth Amendment was “ridiculous,” and that his question about White interacted with the victim that night was “not incriminating at all,” the lawsuit said.

“Walsh then called the invocation — in a murder case – ‘nonsense,’” the lawsuit continued.

However, in the complaint, Geary wrote that White’s use of the Fifth Amendment was necessary for three reasons: he was a suspect in the homicide; if he admitted he was present at the bar earlier with the victim it would potentially implicate him in a simple assault charge; and White was on bond in Westmoreland County for a DUI at the time, and admitting he was at a bar drinking would be a violation, causing him to risk being revoked.

However, the lawsuit continued, Walsh got angry and asked Melograne to hold White in contempt.

The judge declined and excused White and his attorney from the hearing.

However, Walsh’s office immediately drafted a petition for contempt asking that White be jailed.

In it, the prosecution alleged that White had obstructed justice by refusing to answer any questions at the hearing, including simply identifying people at the bar that night.

“The commonwealth submits that White’s outright refusal to answer any questions was complete disobedience to the lawful process of court,” it said.

Walsh then presented his petition for contempt to DiSalle, Washington County’s president judge.

The lawsuit asserts that DiSalle had no jurisdiction to consider the petition because he is not one of two Washington County judges who hear criminal matters, and because he also does not have jurisdiction over the district judge’s office where the initial hearing occurred.

“Defendant DiSalle himself, under his own court order, only had subject matter jurisdiction over Problem-Solving Courts issues, Orphan’s Court matters, and administrative duties,” the lawsuit said.

It also noted that DiSalle authorized the two initial search warrants filed against White. Therefore, the lawsuit said, DiSalle had already concluded there was probable cause to issue the warrants, leaving the judge potentially biased against White, making it improper for DiSalle to preside over the contempt petition.

“Defendant Walsh knew all of the above, yet still improperly presented his petition for contempt of Elijah White to Defendant DiSalle,” the lawsuit said.

DiSalle scheduled a hearing for Dec. 29.

During that hearing, when White’s attorney argued he was protecting his client from potential incrimination, the lawsuit said, DiSalle responded, “But we’re not trying [Elijah White] for [murder] yet.’”

“Obviously, as defendant DiSalle well knows, the privilege is to protect from future prosecution; that DiSalle suggested that White did not yet have the right to invoke the privilege is unbelievable,” Geary wrote in the lawsuit.

At the conclusion of the hearing, DiSalle found White in contempt, sentencing him to five days to six months incarceration.

DiSalle ordered White to be released from jail on Jan. 3 and report directly to Washington County probation.

The contempt finding is currently on appeal at the state Superior Court.

In White’s appeal, Geary wrote: “Here, Judge John DiSalle was not only not watchful of Elijah White’s constitutional privilege, DiSalle worked in conjunction with the interim district attorney to trample White’s civil and constitutional rights to coerce cooperation with the DA’s office.”

Then, Geary continued, the judge penalized White for exercising his Fifth Amendment privilege.

According to the lawsuit, a short time after White was paroled, Walsh contacted the director of Washington County probation, John Ridge, the husband of Walsh’s first assistant district attorney, Leslie Ridge, and asked that Walsh’s brother, Joel Walsh, be assigned as White’s probation officer.

“Again, this was done to intimidate the plaintiff, was totally unnecessary and was done maliciously,” the lawsuit said.

After Geary contacted John Ridge to complain, White was assigned a new probation officer, the lawsuit said.

Paula Reed Ward is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paula by email at pward@triblive.com or via Twitter .