Gettleman now accused of hit-and-run

A longtime defense attorney, accused earlier this month by a grand jury of smuggling drug-soaked paper into the Allegheny County Jail, is now facing a hit-and-run charge after he allegedly struck a woman’s car in a parking garage the day he turned himself in, according to court documents.

A woman reported to Pittsburgh police that on the morning of Dec. 13, she was driving inside the First Avenue parking garage in Downtown when a man driving a black Audi in front of her repeatedly slammed his brakes as he drove his car “erratically.” The complaint was filed Tuesday.

At some point, the man — later identified as defense attorney Paul Gettleman, 74 — got some distance ahead of her on a ramp inside the parking garage, but then backed up and ran into her 2006 Honda CR-V, she said. The woman told police that the man then got out of his car and stared at her briefly before checking his car for damages.

The woman told officials that she was “fearful” and eventually parked her car on a different floor in the garage to prevent further interaction with the man, police said.

He drove away without making verbal contact with the woman, nor did he try to exchange insurance documents, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities were able to identify Mr. Gettleman through his vehicle registration as well as through a positive photo identification by the woman.

Her Honda sustained minor paint scrapes and dents on the front bumper, police said.

The hit-and-run incident allegedly occurred just before 8:30 a.m. that morning — a couple hours before Mr. Gettleman turned himself in at City Court in

Downtown on a half dozen charges of sneaking legal paperwork laced with K2, a synthetic cannabinoid, into the jail and taking payments of up to $1,000 for each delivery.

He was taken into custody after turning himself in around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 13. A grand jury accuses him of providing the drugs to at least two of his inmate clients. Mr. Gettleman was arraigned in the afternoon on the drug charges.

In addition to the drug charges, he faces a misdemeanor count of accidents involving damage to attended vehicles. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3.