Judge Declines to Recuse Himself from Range Resouces-Robinson Township Dispute

A Washington County Court of Common Pleas judge has declined to recuse himself in a case between Range Resources and Robinson Township despite a request from the Southpointe-based company to do just that.

“The court finds that (Range Resources’) stated reasons for seeking recusal, the involvement of the (Judge John DiSalle’s) spouse with the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness Group in the summer of 2011, has not in any way affected the Court’s ability to hear the case fairly and impartiality, and that such activity does not constitute a circumstance where the court’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned under the Code of Judicial Conduct,” DiSalle wrote in an opinion filed Monday.

The opinion also stated: “The Court has reviewed the matter with the other members of the Washington County Court of Common Pleas and has concluded that this is not a situation where a signiticant minority of the lay community might also reasonably question the Court’s impartiality, and the court finds that (Range) has failed to meet its burden and that recusal is not warranted.”

According to the Observer-Reporter newspaper, Range’s spokesman Matt Pitzarella said that in 2011, Diane DiSalle, the judge’s wife, had knocked on his door and asked him to sign a petition for a drilling ban. He said he spoke with her for three hours before she left. The paper said he also claimed to have seen an anti-drilling sign in the DiSalle’s yard prior to the election. DiSalle said that while a neighbor had such a sign in their yard, his family did not.

Range Resources is suing Robinson Township for not allowing the company to begin operations on two properties it had leased for gas drilling.

Editor's Note: To read the entire court order, click on the attached PDF.