Details of Siehl settlement made public

Jan. 7—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A total settlement of $8.2 million was recently reached in a case brought against multiple parties by the late Kevin Siehl, a Johnstown resident who spent a quarter-century in prison on a murder conviction before being set free.

He was arrested in 1991 and found guilty of killing his estranged wife, Christine Siehl, whose body was discovered in her apartment in Johnstown's Moxham neighborhood.

In 2016, a judge determined prosecutors and defense attorneys withheld information and did not test key evidence during the original trial. The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General ultimately declined to retry Siehl.

Siehl, through his attorney Jonathan Feinberg, from Philadelphia, brought a civil case in 2018 against the City of Johnstown, Cambria County, former District Attorney and current Judge David Tulowitzki, former Assistant District Attorney Daniel Lovette, Pennsylvania State Police, PSP Trooper Merrill Brant and PSP Trooper/forensic scientist supervisor Scott Ermlick, along with former Johnstown Police Department Officers Angelo Cancelliere and Lawrence Wagner.

His adult children — Kevin C. Siehl II, individually and as administrator of his father's estate, and Trina Jones — continued the legal matter after his death.

The Tribune-Democrat recently obtained the settlement document, which was agreed to late last year, through a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law request made to the city.

The dollar amounts were:

—$4.6 million to be paid on behalf of Brant, Ermlick and the Pennsylvania State Police

—$2.4 million to be paid on behalf of Cambria County, Tulowitzki, Lovette, Westport Insurance Corp. and Twin City Fire 2 Insurance Co.

—$1.2 million to be paid by St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and PennPRIME on behalf of the City of Johnstown and former defendants Cancelliere and Wagner (Cancelliere and Wagner were dismissed from the case and not responsible for any payments)

According to the legal document, the settlement closed "all claims arising out of the alleged wrongful arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of Kevin C. Siehl between July 14, 1991, and October 13, 2016, for First Degree Murder and related offenses in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania."

"At the end of the day, those figures reflect, I guess, in our case, the city's case, what the insurers were willing to contribute in view of costs and risk of litigation," said Brian Gabriel, a Pittsburgh-area attorney who represented the City of Johnstown.

Siehl maintained his innocence throughout his trial and imprisonment.

"One of the single greatest tragedies of this case is that Kevin Siehl did not live to see the accountability for which he had spent most of his adult life fighting for," Feinberg said. "That said, his family, who took on the case after his death, were gratified to finally obtain the relief that their father had spent so much time seeking."

The settlement stated that: "It is understood and agreed to by the Parties that acceptance of this release and payment of the consideration herein named is not to be construed in any court whatsoever, or otherwise, as an admission of liability on the part of the Released Parties for the causing of the incidents referred to above."

In November, Cambria County announced its part of the settlement, as approved by the commissioners.

"We have spent a substantial period of time contesting the case — went through mediation twice," Cambria County Solicitor William Barbin said at the time.

"During the second mediation, the different parties agreed to it. They agreed to step up, and the county ended up agreeing to kick in $600,000 of funds to settle this case without acknowledging or admitting liability or responsibility."

The City of Johnstown did not use any of its own money for its part of the settlement.

"There's no payment from the City of Johnstown under this agreement or otherwise," Gabriel said. "It's outside of the city budget, not coming from Johnstown. It's only paid by those two insurers."

Pennsylvania State Police had no comment when asked for a statement.

The settlement included a confidentiality clause that was originally cited as the reason for not making Johnstown's payment publicly known.

It specifically noted a prohibition against disclosing the "Settlement Amount paid by each Defendant or the fact of any insurance contributions to the Settlement Amount (the 'Confidential Information') to any third person, firm, or entity whatsoever, including, but not limited to, any newspapers, periodicals, magazines, publications, any form of social media or internet chat rooms or blogs or the like, television stations, radio stations, publishers, and any other enterprise or person, or to any individuals working directly or indirectly for, or on behalf of, any of said entities."

But there was also a written understanding that nothing precluded disclosing the terms if a RTK request was made.

"The attorneys are not parties to the contract, so they're not bound by its terms," Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said in an email. "They can talk to you, it's the parties who can't talk to the press about a very specific aspect of the settlement: 'the share of the Settlement Amount paid by each Defendant or the fact of any insurance contributions to the Settlement Amount (the 'Confidential Information').'

"The limits imposed by the settlement are largely contradicted by the requirements of the RTKL ... so it's somewhat useless as it pertains to the government agencies involved.

"The law is clear: government agencies cannot contract away the public's right to know."

Melewsky added: "It's also worth noting that details of the settlement should have been discussed at a public meeting before it was approved so that the public could provide meaningful public comment before any official action took place."