WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — Overgrown grass, sewage leaks out in the parking lot and an uptick in crime led West Mifflin police to turn over the problems of Mon View Heights to the District Attorney’s Office.
“Raccoons, rats in people’s dwellings and as well as for a whole weekend there was no water to over 400 residents. This was horrendous,” said Phil DiLucente who is the West Mifflin Solicitor.
That led to felony charges including criminal conspiracy against Jonathan Liani, “Mark” Silber, and Frederick Schulman.
In court Friday — Shulman waived his hearing and in a turn of events Liani’s charges were dropped as he testified for the commonwealth that he only did the accounting for Mon View and didn’t have a role in the actual facility.
“He was only on a signatory account as a backend bookkeeper much like you would authorize a paycheck company to execute your checks, once that came to light it was obviously he had no culpability in any of the alleged criminal behavior,” said Fred Rabner who is Liani’s Attorney
Liani walked away a free man, but also a victim, as he testified that Silber —the owner of Mon View still owed him $250,000.
“He and his family feel blessed to have this very sad chapter of his life ended,” Rabner said.
That left hours of testimony against Silber. The police chief told the court gun violence is up in this apartment complex, the fire chief said the hydrants don’t have water pressure if there was a fire. The code enforcement officer detailed all the violations and issues stating nothing was fixed since Silber and Shulman purchased the property in 2023.
The two are linked to at least 11 other “nuisance properties” in the region according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The defense firing back presented hundreds of checks paid out for utilities, pest control and other companies stating it was proof of work being done. The attorney further pointed out that more than half of the units weren’t even inspected and that evidence shows the prior owners also faced violations.
The Commonwealth had nearly a dozen witnesses to call in this case and only got about halfway. The hearing will pick back up on March 28th
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