Prison board fires guard charged with assaults
Washington County Prison Board voted Wednesday to fire corrections officer Andrew Taylor, one week after he was charged with assaulting his wife and 5-year-old stepdaughter.
Taylor, a full-time employee, worked for the county since March 2011. His salary this year would have been $42,744. Warden John Temas presented a routine report to the prison board related to the jail’s physical plant, then asked the board approve Taylor’s termination and requested a closed session.
When the public meeting resumed about 10 minutes later, Judge John DiSalle made a motion Taylor lose his job, which county Controller Michael Namie seconded.
Also voting in favor of the action were Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, who chaired the meeting in Commissioner Larry Maggi’s absence, District Attorney Gene Vittone and Commissioner Harlan Shober, who participated in the meeting via teleconference.
After the meeting was adjourned, Temas declined to discuss Andrew Taylor’s employment status between his arrest and Wednesday’s first prison board meeting this month.
East Bethlehem Township police charged Taylor, 29, of Bethlehem Street, Fredericktown, on April 27. They were called to Taylor’s home the night of April 25 to investigate a report of domestic abuse. Taylor’s wife, Courtney Kubicar Taylor, who is also a correctional officer at the jail, told police she had been assaulted by her husband. The officer could see a bruise on her left arm, what appeared to be knuckle marks on her abdomen and scrapes on her arm.
She told police the two had an argument, which became a physical confrontation when her husband allegedly grabbed her by the neck and punched her in the stomach. He then allegedly threw her on the bed, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her.
Andrew Taylor was gone when police arrived at the home. Courtney Taylor refused treatment for her injuries, police said. The couple’s infant child also was home but was not injured, Pompe said.
Courtney Taylor said when she was bathing her 5-year-old, she noticed bruising on the child’s buttocks and the inside of her hips. She said Andrew Taylor was the last person to be in care of the child. East Bethlehem Township Police Chief Mark Pompe said the girl was taken to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for an evaluation. The child returned to the hospital last week. Washington County Children and Youth Services also was notified.
Andrew Taylor has preliminary hearing scheduled next week before District Judge Mark Wilson.
In 2014, he was also charged with an assault on Courtney Taylor, who was then his girlfriend, when she was living in Vestaburg. In December 2014, she accused him of choking her and threatening to kill her. Charges of witness intimidation, terroristic threats, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct were dismissed in April 2015 after he took an anger-management course, was evaluated for drug and alcohol use and had a mental health work-up.
Courtney Taylor has worked part-time at the jail since April 2014.