Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli will have the right to approve any potential sale of the shuttered Rialto bar and restaurant in Greensburg under an agreement approved Wednesday.
Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr. signed off on a consent decree between Ziccarelli and Rialto Inc. owner John Rullo that will keep the establishment closed for up to one year. The district attorney last week filed a lawsuit seeking to declare the Rialto a nuisance bar.
In business for the last 90 years at the corner of Otterman Street and Pennsylvania Avenue across the street from the county courthouse, the Rialto has been closed since Nov. 24, when Joseph R. Williams of New Alexandria was stabbed as many as 10 times in front of the bar.
Police said an altercation between Williams and Anthony J. Sharp, 31, of Jeannette began inside the bar and spilled out onto the street. Sharp is charged with attempted homicide and other offenses in the case and is free on $250,000 bail as he awaits trial.
It was the last of a series of violent acts and criminal behavior that the district attorney says occurred at and around the Rialto since 2019.
Rullo declined to comment Wednesday.
In January 2022, two men were arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a shooting outside the Rialto, according to prosecutors. Police said Evan Curley, 24, of Greensburg and Stevin German, 28, of Uniontown fired 10 shots during the melee. A window on a walking bridge above Pennsylvania Avenue linking the county Courthouse Annex and Extension buildings was shattered, a bystander was wounded and Curley was shot during the incident.
Prosecutions of Curley and German are pending.
Rullo placed the Rialto’s liquor license, which had been suspended since last summer, into “safekeeping” with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Dec. 30 to allow for the potential transfer to a third party.
The agreement with the county prosecutor will enable the business to reopen under new ownership.
“The parties … agree that the premises itself is not located in a nuisance area … and with proper ownership, management and supervision, the location can be operated as a productive business location within the cultural district of the city of Greensburg,” the court order states.
Rullo can appeal to the court should Ziccarelli reject a potential new owner for the Rialto.
The agreement is the second court action taken by Ziccarelli involving a local bar and restaurant.
Ziccarelli brokered a court-approved deal last summer with the owner of Sweeney’s Steakhouse in Rostraver that permanently shuttered the establishment following a shooting in late June 2022. Like the deal with the Rialto, Sweeney’s owner, Debra Hardy Maley, is required to obtain Ziccarelli’s approval before the business can be sold.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .