A Westmoreland County judge has dismissed the criminal case against a Pittsburgh man accused of causing an undercover state trooper to overdose during a drug sting in Salem.
Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears ruled that prosecutors were unable to support criminal charges filed against 27-year-old Robert M. Whitley Jr. following a drug bust in a Delmont area Walmart parking lot.
Prosecutors had claimed that a trooper involved in the arrest overdosed after being exposed to fentanyl found inside Whitley’s vehicle. Whitley was subsequently charged with drug offenses and aggravated assault. However, Mears ruled that police lacked probable cause to stop and search the vehicle.
As a result, the judge barred evidence and testimony regarding the 40 bricks of suspected heroin or fentanyl and 5.5 ounces of suspected cocaine investigators claimed to have found in a bag on the vehicle’s floor.
The investigation began when a confidential informant identified Whitley as being involved in a drug transaction. During a pretrial hearing, Trooper Jacob Wiskeman testified that he shattered the driver’s side window and forcefully removed Whitley from the car after he refused to comply with police instructions.
Wiskeman claimed he touched a bag on the passenger-side floor while tossing Whitley’s keys back into the vehicle after the arrest. Dashcam video played in court showed Wiskeman inside the vehicle for approximately seven seconds. While Wiskeman maintained he never searched the car or saw drugs during that time, he testified that he began to feel ill while driving back to the Greensburg barracks.
Cpl. Jonathan Lindsay testified to finding Wiskeman in distress at the barracks and administered two doses of Narcan to reverse symptoms that included vomiting, disorientation and pinpoint pupils.
In his ruling, Mears noted that prosecutors failed to submit scientific evidence that Wiskeman had actually overdosed.
“There was no testimony or evidence presented that Trooper Wiskeman came into contact with any substance, controlled or otherwise, within the bag during that brief moment or at any other point in time that day,” Mears wrote.