A group of Penn Hills police detectives filed a lawsuit against the municipality and a number of its leaders alleging collusion, hostile work environment and corruption.
The almost 400-page lawsuit was filed in early April on behalf of Detectives Jonathan Milos, Pierce Robison, Teresa Gongware, Steffan Shaw and Josh Martinelli. Penn Hills Council and its individual members — Alan Waldron, Shawn Kerestus, Ian Cartwright and Kim Refosco — the municipality, Mayor Pauline Calabrese and the Penn Hills Police Advisory Board all are named as defendants.
While police Chief Jason Bonace is not listed as a defendant, he is accused in the lawsuit of participating in creating a hostile work environment for the plaintiffs after they pursued civil service complaints about his appointment to chief.
Bonace was appointed chief in August after serving as interim chief in September. Prior to that, he was the department’s K-9 officer. The lawsuit claims Bonace was not qualified to take up the chief position.
According to stipulations from the civil service board, the person appointed must be a resident of Penn Hills, must have at least 12 years of experience in municipal police work, five years of which must have involved supervisory and minor administrative responsibility, and must have achieved the rank of lieutenant.
The lawsuit claims Bonace does not have five years of supervisory experience and did not achieve the rank of lieutenant. Plaintiffs claim council voted to retroactively change the requirements in March to accommodate Bonace’s appointment.
The lawsuit said some of the plaintiffs, members of the collective bargaining unit and members of Penn Hills administrative staff, objected both formally and informally to Bonace’s appointment.
The lawsuit alleges that, in response to the objections, Penn Hills and Bonace began to “retaliate against objectors by altering terms and conditions of employment, rejecting long-standing past practices and stripping objectors of their assignments or rank, either officially or in effect.”
These efforts included blocking grievances, influencing union decisions and shutting down challenges before they reach arbitration, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit claims officers were told not to file grievances during a contract year because it would not be viewed “favorably” in negotiations.
The suit also claims Bonace targeted certain detective departments by releasing directives that called for the Special Victims Unit and General Investigation Unit to work patrol shifts. Plaintiffs claimed the order effectively demoted them and stopped them from being able to perform investigations.
In February, Robison was demoted and stripped of his assignment. He was reinstated after the decision was later determined to have violated the collective bargaining agreement and civil service rules, the complaint states.
The plaintiffs also alleged council agreed to implement Act 49, allowing officers to reach 25 years of service sooner and retire with full benefits in exchange for the Police Advisory Board agreeing to a 12-hour shift trial period of one year. The lawsuit claims everyone signed the agreement, but the act was never implemented.
The 12-hour shift has been active on a trial basis since 2024. The lawsuit said the plaintiffs attempted to have the advisory board postpone the January vote to make the 12-hour shift permanent since multiple municipal leaders indicated Penn Hills was not ready to implement Act 49. The request was ignored, and the 12-hour shift was approved.
As a result of the detectives’ request, the lawsuit accused Bonace and leaders of the advisory board of creating a hostile work environment by advising other police officers that the detectives were jeopardizing their benefits.
The lawsuit states detectives were advised by some officers that they would not support the detectives while on patrol. Some officers placed pictures of rats with some of the detectives’ badge numbers written on them throughout the department, according to the suit.
Bonace declined to comment about the lawsuit Tuesday.
The lawsuit asks the court to issue orders for Penn Hills to enact Act 49; rescind ordinance 2710-2026, which changed police chief position requirements; issue an order for the Police Advisory Board to proceed with the plaintiffs’ blocked grievances; grant plaintiffs’ request for an award of damages, including but not limited to those damages relating to lost wages, lost overtime, decreased wages, reputation damage, professional harm, impairment of standing in the community, personal humiliation, mental anguish and health care costs resulting from the defendants’ conduct.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Kimberly Gompers, declined to comment because of the ongoing litigation and because the plaintiffs are still employees of the municipality.
Penn Hills Solicitor Craig Alexander did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.