VoiceoverHelen

This is Alina Sheykhet. She was 20 years old. Matthew Darby was brought into the Allegheny County Jail on a criminal trespass charge after breaking into her apartment. He refused to cooperate with my coworker. Cocky. Arrogant. Defiant. I saw he had a pending rape case out of another county. I couldn’t see the victim’s name. I needed to know if it was the same woman. I called Allegheny County 911. They transferred me to Indiana County 911. A sergeant from the department that arrested him for the rape called me back. He was in his cruiser and told me he didn’t have the information with him. He said he would turn around, go back to the station, pull the file, and call me right back. And he did. When he called back, he asked for the name of my victim. I told him Alina Sheykhet. “Different girl,” he said. Then he added, “He really gets around.” I told him I knew that — and that I was going to try to stop it. I called my supervisor. She was also the manager responsible for the jail population numbers. Let me explain why that matters. We worked for the criminal courts. We did not run the Allegheny County Jail. Managing the jail population should have been the responsibility of county jail leadership, not someone in the very Pretrial Services office receiving grant money to reduce that population. The same office pushing to release defendants was responsible for tracking the numbers used to measure the success of those efforts. That is a glaring conflict of interest. And to me, it screams corruption. I told my supervisor everything. Pending rape case. Refusing to cooperate. No idea where he would go if released. I told her he doesn’t like women telling him no. I asked for an override. I did not want this man released on a non-monetary bond. She declined it. I documented the declined override that night. I still have the screenshot. I also told my coworkers out loud: He will kill her if he gets out. Thirteen days later, my coworker messaged me a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story. Police were looking for the ex-boyfriend of a slain Pitt student. It was Alina. He had gone back to her apartment and beaten her to death. Her father found her. I said he would kill her. I warned them. I asked them not to release him. I documented the warning. We released him anyway. The money was more important. Alina Sheykhet was just starting her life. We helped facilitate Matthew Darby ending it. @ColinDunlap @ZitoSalena @JeremyShafferPA @RepGaydos @RepMihalek @SenRobinsonPA