Former Frazer cop accused of using police-tracking software to monitor woman’s whereabouts
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A Harrison man who has worked as a police officer for multiple Alle-Kiski Valley departments is accused of using police-tracking software to monitor the whereabouts of a woman who had broken off a relationship with him, court paperwork shows.
Michael A. McSherry, 29, also is accused of secretly placing a GPS tracking device in the woman’s car, hacking into a surveillance camera in the woman’s house and obtaining a naked photo of the woman from when she was 14 from a revenge porn website, a criminal complaint filed against him said.
Township police filed nearly a dozen charges against McSherry on Tuesday, including two felony counts of unlawful use of a computer and a felony count of child pornography. He also faces misdemeanor charges of official oppression, stalking and making terroristic threats, court records show.
Police escorted a handcuffed McSherry into the Allegheny Township office of District Judge Cheryl Peck Yakopec about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The district judge set his bond at $250,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Oct. 12 in her office. Township police led McSherry out of the courtroom and into a police cruiser after the hearing.
The criminal complaint against McSherry said police were called to a home on Paulownia Drive on the afternoon of Sept. 18 for a domestic disturbance. Westmoreland County 911 dispatchers reported hearing screaming in the background, the complaint said.
When police arrived, they said the woman who had called 911 was outside the home with her two young children. The complaint said that officers were “familiar with McSherry being a police officer and military veteran and having some mental health issues in the past.”
The woman told officers that McSherry had been irate, pushed her and one of the children and threatened to kill himself before going into a bathroom with a loaded gun and locking the door, the complaint said.
Police said they ultimately were able to get McSherry to come out of the house and he was arrested without incident. McSherry was later admitted to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, and at the hospital he tested positive for covid, the complaint said.
During their investigation, police said the woman told them that McSherry had used license plate readers to track her vehicle and another vehicle driven by her mother. He had access to the readers through his employment as a Frazer police officer, the complaint said.
Frazer police Chief Terry Kuhns said McSherry had been hired as a part-timer in Frazer about a month and a half ago and he last worked Sept. 3.
The chief said McSherry had moved on to work in Kiski Township.
Kiski Township Police said McSherry was hired last month, worked one shift and was suspended this week.
Vandergrift police Chief Joe Caporali said McSherry was hired as a part-time officer by department last month, completed one training shift and was suspended by Vandergrift Mayor Barb Turiak on Sept. 20.
McSherry also previously worked as a part-time officer in New Kensington from April 2018 to January 2019 and as a full-timer there from February 2019 until he resigned in May of this year, according to New Kensington City Clerk Dennis Scarpiniti.
McSherry “started looking up the victim’s license plate from as far back as March 2021 and sent the victim screenshots from his phone telling her that license plate readers don’t lie,” the complaint said.
Audits conducted by Beaver County-based Security Solutions, which maintains the license plate readers, showed that McSherry logged into the system to check the vehicles at least 365 times between Aug. 22 and Sept. 17, the complaint said. He used his phone and computer to do so while off duty, according to the complaint.
The woman told police she also discovered a GPS tracking device under the dashboard and steering wheel area of her car around the end of March, and that McSherry recently “showed her on his phone … all the videos he recorded of her through the Nanny Cam” inside the woman’s house, the complaint said.
McSherry also is accused of repeatedly calling the woman, according to the complaint. The complaint said that on one night in July, while the woman was on a family vacation, McSherry called her 78 times. Early on Sept. 14, the woman told police, McSherry used his laptop to video-call her 73 times in 65 minutes after he had smashed his cellphone in a rage, the complaint said.
Police said in the complaint that a search of McSherry’s phone also turned up a naked photo of the woman from when she was “a victim of sexting” about 15 years earlier, when she was a young teen. The woman said she had never told McSherry about that incident. The complaint said it appears that “McSherry got that picture from a revenge porn website, and even has text messages telling him that the girl is only 14 years old.”
Police said a further investigation would be conducted to determine how McSherry obtained that photo.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Allegheny Township police Chief Duane Fisher said he was pleased the investigation led to McSherry’s arrest.
“I’m happy we have someone … now out of this (police) uniform that was using what people have given him to protect them illegally and to take advantage of people. I think it’s a great day for us to move forward with this case,” Fisher said.
Jason Huska of Greensburg, an attorney representing McSherry, could not be reached.
Staff writers Brian Rittmeyer and Tanisha Thomas contributed.