A judge Tuesday overturned a guilty verdict issued against a Jeannette woman who prosecutors said made false reports to local police.

Deborah Samulski, 62, served more than three months in jail after she was convicted last summer of two misdemeanor charges of filing false reports with a local gas company and Jeannette police as part of an effort to have two people removed from her home.

Prosecutors claimed that in May 2020, Samulski filed a false report of a gas leak and made repeated calls to Jeannette police seeking to have two people removed from her home after being told she needed to file eviction notices to do so.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger on Tuesday said evidence presented during her two-day trial was insufficient to prove she intentionally misled police and nullified the jury’s verdict on one count of making a false report to law enforcement.

In his ruling, the judge ruled that trial testimony did not prove that the two people who claimed to live in Samulski’s home were trespassers — as she told police — and not legal tenants.

“This evidence, therefore, is not sufficient to enable the fact-finder to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was knowingly dishonest in her belief that … (they) were trespassers,” Krieger wrote in a 13-page opinion.

The judge affirmed the jury’s guilty verdict on a charge that Samulski filed a false report of a gas leak at the property.

In November, Samulski pleaded guilty to charges of risking a catastrophe and reckless endangerment in connection with allegations she injured Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County workers who came to her home to restore water service in late 2020.

Police said in that case, the utility crew members sustained minor burns after Samulski poured acid down a drain as they worked. According to court records, Samulski was paroled after she was given credit for time served in jail and ordered to serve five years on probation.

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