Lacking evidence to prove an alleged theft from an IT company, Allegheny County prosecutors Thursday dropped a criminal case against a Gibsonia man who co-founded the now-defunct company.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala originally chose to prosecute Eric V. Cunningham, 47, in July after his office was approached by lawyers from Cunningham's former company, Information Technology Procurement Sourcing, according to transcripts from Cunningham's preliminary hearing in August.

“It's a good outcome. Hopefully, this will unlock a lot of doors that have been locked for Eric Cunningham,” said James Herb, the defendant's lawyer. “It's a pretty tough world. When you're dirtied or sullied a bit, no one wants to have anything to do with you.”

Assistant District Attorney John Pittman alleged in his original criminal complaint that Cunningham stole more than $205,000 during 2017 and 2018 while he was CEO of the company. He was fired in July 2018.

As the case made its way through court, problems immediately cropped up.After the August preliminary hearing during which Cunningham's lawyer, James Herb, pointed out flaws in Pittman's case and investigation, prosecutors recalculated the alleged theft to be about $72,600.And as Herb began to prepare to take the case to trial, he noticed that prosecutors were missing evidence to support their claim that an ITPS intern received two bonuses, plus an expense reimbursement of $1,500 after she left the company.Additionally, prosecutors didn't have evidence to support a claim that Cunningham bought a car with company funds, but used it for personal reasons before selling it.“There's no evidence to support any of that,” Herb said. “That's a significant part of their case. And they already knocked off thousands from prelim.”According to Herb, Pittman decided that “the interests of justice would not be served by pursuing criminal prosecution.”Pittman could not be reached in time for publication.

During an interview after court proceedings Thursday, Cunningham questioned why the charges were brought against him in the first place if they ended up getting dropped.“It's public humiliation. They humiliated me and my family,” Cunningham said.He described the past six months of his life as being filled with anxiety and depression.“I've worked for 26 years to build a reputation and reputable businesses, and they put a significant public impact on that,” Cunningham said. “I'm hoping people will understand that none of that was true. It was all hearsay. This was horrible, just horrible.”The business, which has since filed for bankruptcy, according to court testimony, set up networking systems for various businesses and school districts — including Mars Area and Karns City Area.Herb argued during the preliminary hearing that the remaining owners of the company were using the criminal case as protection against a lawsuit Cunningham has filed against the company.

In the lawsuit, filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court, Cunningham alleges he is owed $1.5 million as part of a severance package that never was paid to him. The lawsuit recently was settled out of court, according to Nicole Thurner, Cunningham's lawyer in the civil matter.During the preliminary hearing in the criminal case, Herb contended that the entire case was based upon civil disputes, and that the remaining owners of the company attempted to use the district attorney's office and bankruptcy court to shield themselves from further inquiry under the civil process.Herb said the two sides — civil and criminal — played off each other and with the civil side closed, the criminal side followed.“There's always a connection between the participants,” Herb said. “What's the motivation here? The defendants in the civil case were the witnesses in the criminal case — and if the civil case is settled, then they don't have any motive to pursue this. That had something to do with it.”Cunningham is hoping to begin working again after losing time on the case. He recently started a new company based out of Cranberry Township known as Procurement Analysis and Strategy. It helps other businesses with IT-related issues such as buying software licenses.“I'm hoping that people will understand the truth. I just want to move on with my life,” Cunningham said.