Ex-detective fined $200 after hindering prosecution plea

PITTSBURGH >> A former Pittsburgh homicide detective accused of filing false police reports and evidence-tampering has been fined $200 after pleading no contest to two counts.

Margaret “Peg” Sherwood, 53, entered the no contest plea Friday to hindering prosecution or apprehension by providing false information to law enforcement. In such a plea, a defendant doesn’t acknowledge guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.

State prosecutors accused her of providing false information in two 2014 slayings and trying to scuttle a domestic violence prosecution of a jailhouse informant. The state attorney general’s office filed charges of false swearing, unsworn falsification, tampering with evidence, obstruction, false imprisonment and hindering apprehension. Prosecutors withdrew all but the hindering charges Friday.

The plea agreement didn’t include any stipulation on sentence. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill Rangos sentenced Sherwood, who was hired as a police officer in 1989 and retired in June 2018 after 27 years, to a $200 fine and imposed “no further penalty.”

Jacklin Rhoads, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, said in a statement that Sherwood “breached the trust of her community” by falsifying reports tied to two homicide cases.

“Her reckless disregard for proper procedure hindered the ability of the prosecution to deliver justice for the victims of these crimes,” Rhoads said, adding that Sherwood will never be able to work in law enforcement again.