Sep 15, 2022 3 min read

The North Strabane man still awaiting trial on charges that he fatally shot his wife more than eight years ago is now accused of falsifying legal documents and forging the signature of his former defense attorney in court papers.

Scott Edmonds was charged last month with two felony counts of forgery and a misdemeanor charge of falsely claiming to still hold his physical therapist’s license, after investigators said they discovered inaccuracies in court paperwork filed in early July.

Detectives with the Washington County district attorney’s office said they found documents filed July 6 at the clerk of courts office that appeared to have a counterfeit signature of his defense attorney, Rose Semple, on a signature line reserved for counsel. The paperwork, which was a motion to dismiss the case under Rule 600 “speedy trial” procedures, also indicated Edmonds was an active physical therapist despite his license expiring in December 2014, several months after his wife’s death.

Edmonds is accused of fatally shooting his 49-year-old wife, Louise M. Weis-Edmonds, in the back of the head inside their North Strabane condo on March 25, 2014. Since his arrest, he has remained in the Washington County jail while awaiting trial as he’s chased off seven defense attorneys during that time and asked the court on multiple occasions to be permitted to represent himself.

Semple was in the process of requesting a Rule 600 hearing to argue that Edmonds had been jailed for too long without being tried when the allegedly faulty documents were submitted. The forgery charges filed against Edmonds on Aug. 11 do not indicate which exact documents were falsified. Online court records indicated that Semple made multiple filings that day with the clerk of courts over the Rule 600 petition, including requesting transcripts.

A Rule 600 hearing was held before President Judge John DiSalle on July 8 where he heard arguments from Semple and First Assistant District Attorney Leslie Ridge on whether the time clock to bring Edmonds to trial had expired. The statute requires a defendant to be brought to trial within 365 days of the charges being filed, although there are numerous exceptions in which delays are permitted. DiSalle ultimately denied the Rule 600 petition Aug. 8 due to the fact that an overwhelming number of the delays were because of Edmonds and his defense attorneys.

Semple withdrew as Edmonds’ defense attorney on July 26 and attorney Mark Adams was appointed to take her place shortly after. Semple declined comment about the case involving her forged signature, although court documents indicated that she did not authorize the signing of her name on the document in question. Adams could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the forgery charges.

Edmonds, 58, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning before District Judge Kelly Stewart, but the proceeding was postponed due to technological issues that would not allow for the defendant to appear through video conferencing.

Edmonds sent a package of materials to the Observer-Reporter on July 11 in which he claimed his wife died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and accused the former North Strabane police investigator of planting evidence at his house. He signed a five-page letter included in the package with the initials P.T. at the end and included a photocopy of a business card of his physical therapy practice with the address manually changed to include the Washington County jail’s location.

His homicide trial in his wife’s shooting death is tentatively scheduled for early December.