Alexander H. Lindsay, Jr.
Attorney at LawAlexander H. Lindsay, Jr. (Al) grew up in the Freeport/Butler area, north of Pittsburgh. He attended the Freeport Area Schools and graduated from high school at the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania in 1964.
Al graduated as a History major from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA in 1968. He was a 1971 graduate of Pitt Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. Al returned to Pitt Law School in 1992 as an adjunct professor, teaching Trial Advocacy to law students.
In 1972 Al became the first full time Assistant District Attorney in the history of Butler County. In that position he investigated and prosecuted all types of violent and white collar crime. He also handled Juvenile Court hearings in Butler County and most proceedings before the various Indicting Grand Juries which were in session at the time.
His most significant work as an Assistant District Attorney in Butler County, however, was to investigate and prosecute public corruption. In 1974, he was appointed to supervise a Special Grand Jury investigation of allegations of corruption at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in Butler County. This investigation resulted in numerous indictments and convictions, including the convictions of William Casper, Treasure of the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, who was convicted of extortion, conspiracy, criminal solicitation and election law violations, and Thomas Tiberi, a former PA State Legislator, convicted of extortion. Other significant prosecutions that Al pursued while he worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Butler County included Joseph Markus, Director of the Personal Property Tax Bureau, who was prosecuted for embezzlement, and Leo Sarteschi, Chief Inheritance Tax Appraiser, who was convicted of bribery.
In August 1975, Al was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, under U.S. Attorney Richard Thornburg, a positions he held until July 1980. The vast majority of the cases prosecuted by Al as an Assistant United States Attorney dealt with public corruption and white collar crime. From September 1977 until July 1980, he served as supervisor of all public corruption investigations and prosecutions by the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
During his time, Al personally prosecuted many high profile public corruption cases, including the prosecution of former United States Congressman Frank M. Clark, for mail fraud and income tax violations, former State Senator William Duffeld, for mail fraud and perjury violations, State Representative Robert E. Bellomi, for violation of the Hobbs Act, John Torquato, Harold Stevens and John George, all State employees, who were found guilty of violating the Hobbs Act, and Egidio Cerilli, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, for a violation of the Hobbs Act.
In July 1980, Al left the United States Attorneys Office and entered the private practice of law in Butler, PA, where his main office is located today. Much of his early work in Butler involved municipal litigation, and he was solicitor for a number of municipal governments. From January 1984 to March 1986, he was the Butler County Solicitor, from July 1980 to July 1984, he was the Solicitor for the Redevelopment Authority for the City of Butler. He was also solicitor for Cranberry Township in Butler County, one of the fastest growing municipalities in Western Pennsylvania.
Much of Al's experience as a private attorney has been in the field of criminal defense and civil litigation, in both Federal and State Courts. He was involved in the defense of numerous high profile criminal cases, the most prominent of which was the defense of a Brentwood Police Officer, John Vojtas, who was originally charged with murder, as a result of the death of Johnny Gammage on October 12, 1995. In that case, through expert testimony, the defense refuted the proposition that Mr. Gammage died as a result of any conduct on the part of Officer Vojtas and successfully refuted the idea that Mr. Vojtas committed any misconduct. After a highly publicized jury trial, the Defendant, John Vojtas, was acquitted of all charges. Al also defended the Rev. Richard Rossi on charges of attempting to murder his wife. The trial ended with a hung jury.
Al has also been involved in numerous civil trials, including the case of Charles Wilken, Ruth Wilken and Janice Wilken vs. the Butler Motor Transit Company in which a Butler County jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiffs in the amount of $1,139,661, which was one of the largest verdicts ever paid in Butler County.
Al has received a number of awards in the course of his career, including a Special Achievement Award from Attorney General Griffin B. Bell, on March 6, 1978 and a Commendation from William Webster, Director of the F. B. I. He also served as the President of the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association in 1998, and on March 13, 1999, Al was admitted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
In addition to trying cases, Al has been Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, teaching Trial Advocacy since 1992. He appeared numerous times as an instructor at the Attorney General's Advocacy Institute for Criminal Trial Advocacy at the United States Department of Justice in Washington D.C. He also conducted numerous seminars on criminal procedure for State and Local police, and he was an instructor in Criminal Law and Procedure at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Butler County Community College. Al served on the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee at the request of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for six years.
Q&A with Al Lindsay
from Butler Business Matters
