Court says Finleyville man’s conviction on posts correct

A Washington County man was correctly convicted last year of terroristic threats after making a 2017 Facebook post reading “Shoot them and start over” that referenced striking teachers, Pennsylvania’s Superior Court ruled this week.

George J. Shallenberger, 47, of Finleyville, faced a sentence of two to 23 months’ incarceration following a conviction of making terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another. He appealed that conviction from the Washington County Court of Common Pleas and has not yet served the time during the appeal process.

While teachers at Ringgold School District were striking in 2017, Shallenberger made multiple posts referencing them. “Easiest job in the world, but they need more money. Shoot them and start over,” he wrote on a page called “Mon Valley Views.”

He claimed the “Shoot them and start over” post was not referring to the teachers and testified that he did not post the comment for teachers to see.

In the 27-page opinion, President Judge Emeritus

Kate Ford Elliott wrote that argument “misses the mark,” and agreed with the trial court that by posting on the public Mon Valley Views page, Shallenberger “was fully aware that his threat would be seen by many people in the community.”

Some of Shallenberger’s other posts read, “Schoolteachers need to get real jobs. Damn snowflakes,” “Guns don’t kill people, I kill people” and “Happiness is a warm gun.” These posts were not the subject of the terroristic threats charge but were used by the prosecution to provide context and “circumstantial evidence of [Shallenberger’s] state of mind or intent.”

Shallenberger testified that he was referencing the Beatles’ song “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” because “it’s a song you don’t hear very often,” and the “Guns don’t kill people, I kill people” post was a reference to a shirt worn by a character in the film “Happy Gilmore.”

Shallenberger also argued that he was not given a fair trial, and that the prosecution’s use of these other posts made the jury prejudiced against him. Specifically, he took issue that the prosecution did not specifically tell the jury the “snowflakes” post was not the subject of the charge.

Judge Elliott disagreed. Shallenberger already admitted that the “snowflakes” post “was in reference to the Ringgold teachers’ strike and that the post was a means for [Shallenberger] to voice his disagreement with the teachers’ position during their labor dispute with the school district,” she wrote.

Furthermore, even though prosecutors didn’t specifically warn the jury that the “snowflakes” post was not the subject of the terrorist threats charge, they already made clear that only the “Shoot them and start over” post was the basis for the charge, the judge wrote.

Such an error by the prosecutors was not enough to prejudice the jury against Shallenberger, the court found.

Neil Marcus, Shallenberger’s attorney, said Shallenberger’s post wasn’t a true threat, and he shouldn’t have been found guilty. He will file a petition for review to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in hopes of overturning the Superior Court’s decision.