The state Supreme Court must decide if the City of Pittsburgh should be responsible for paying a $75,000 jury award against an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer who chased down and assaulted a teenager who had been smashing pumpkins in his neighborhood nearly 10 years ago.

The appellate court heard arguments on the issue of indemnification during its session in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. It will issue a decision in the case at a later date.

On Nov. 12, 2012, Shane McGuire, who was then 16, and friends were smashing pumpkins and ringing doorbells in the city’s New Homestead neighborhood, where Pittsburgh police Officer Colby Neidig lived.

Neidig, who was not in uniform and did not have his badge or gun on him, claimed that he thought he was protecting his family from an attempted home invasion and chased McGuire through nearby woods, ultimately catching him and breaking his nose.

McGuire was not convicted of any crime. He later sued Neidig and the City of Pittsburgh in federal court for civil rights violations, including excessive force, assault and battery.

Although the judge in the federal case dismissed the city as a defendant, the case against Neidig went to trial in 2017, and a jury found in favor of McGuire. It ordered Neidig to pay $75,000 in damages.

A short time later, Neidig sought indemnification from the city, citing Pennsylvania law that protects municipal employees from being held personally liable for claims that occur within the scope of their official duties.

Attorneys for the city, however, claimed that Neidig was acting as a private citizen at the time of the incident and, therefore, the city should not have to pay the claim.

That issue went to a separate jury trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in 2019, and the jury found in favor of the city. McGuire appealed first to the Commonwealth Court, which affirmed the jury’s decision, and then to the state Supreme Court.

On Wednesday, McGuire’s attorney, Margaret Coleman, argued that the Commonwealth Court decision harms both municipal employees because they go unprotected, and injured plaintiffs because it denies them the relief to which they are entitled.

She also told the court that, even after the city was dismissed as a defendant in the federal court action, it continued to attend proceedings and participate in the lawsuit.

“Is that evidence of a determination by the city that he was entitled to indemnification?” asked Justice Christine Donohue.

Coleman suggested that it is.

Under Pennsylvania law, if it is determined that the actions of a municipal employee caused injury to a person, “and such act was … within the scope of his office or duties, the [municipality] shall indemnify the employee for the payment of any judgment on the suit.”

Coleman said the federal jury found that Neidig was acting “under color of law,” and therefore the city should be required to pay the damage award.

But Julie E. Koren, who represented the City of Pittsburgh at oral argument, said that a federal finding that Neidig acted “under color of state law” is not the same as a state law finding that he acted within the “scope of his office or duties” under the indemnification statute.

The two phrases are not interchangeable, she said.

Koren told the state Supreme Court that Neidig was not acting as an officer at the time of the incident - in fact, he called the police and waited for another officer to arrive to arrest Neidig.

“He detained him,” Donohue countered.

Koren also told the court that, while the city was protecting its interests in remaining active in the federal case, it was the Fraternal Order of Police union that paid for Neidig’s defense at trial.

Neidig, who was later promoted to sergeant, was one of the officers named in the Pittsburgh police internal Critical Incident Review Board report on the tasing of Jim Rogers in Bloomfield in October. Neidig, who was a supervisor that day, responded to the scene on Harriet Street.

According to an executive summary of the report, Neidig engaged with Rogers for about 90 seconds as Rogers sat in the back of a police car. During the interaction, Neidig told Rogers twice to “‘take a breath,” and that medics were coming to check him out.

Rogers was never checked by medics and died a day later.

Five officers were terminated based on their actions that day. On Thursday, a city spokesperson confirmed Neidig is no longer employed there.

McGuire, who is in the Navy and currently stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., listened to the argument online Wednesday.

His parents, Patrick and Kathy McGuire, attended in person.

Kathy McGuire said that they want to get the incident behind them.

“He still regrets it to this day,” Patrick McGuire said. “It was a teenage prank.

“It did not require the act of violence he put on Shane because of a couple of pumpkins.”

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