The Jackson Township man who violated state election law will serve one year of probation.

Joe Talarico on Wednesday waived his preliminary hearing before Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr and agreed to a plea bargain.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia McLean said Talarico, who will be on the county's accelerated rehabilitative disposition program, cannot be involved in the funding of any campaign advertising.

Talarico was charged in connection with a postcard mailing deriding former county commissioner candidate Jack Beiler of Penn Township as a Democrat who he claimed would vote for a Republican.

The postcard violated state election law because a fictitious individual's name, Gary Miles, was listed as the person paying for the mailing and the expense wasn't filed with the county elections bureau.

Because the anti-Beiler postcard had the same U.S. Post Office permit number as a card supporting another former candidate for commissioner, Dave Wilson of Buffalo Township, county Detective Scott Roskovski linked its printing to Bob Arlia of Business Card Source LLC in Cranberry Township.

Arlia on June 5 told Roskovski that Miles, the person behind the anti-Beiler mailing, was associated with D-PAC, also known as the Butler County Democrats for Change, according to the detective's incident report.

Both Arlia and Talarico were D-PAC members.

However, two months later, when pressed by Roskovski on Miles being fictitious, Arlia told Roskovski that Talarico was behind it.

Although conceding other people were involved with devising the postcard, Talarico took the blame.

Roskovski asked Arlia why he didn't tell him about Talarico in June.

"Arlia stated, 'you never asked,'" according to the incident report.

In ensuing months, Talarico maintained he was unaware the use of a fictitious name was illegal and that the expense had to be filed with the county as well as the state.

The front of the postcard, which was mailed to 2,505 residences in the county, shows a herd of sheep walking down a road. An illustration in the bottom right corner depicts a wolf with a sheepskin strapped to his back.

The back of the postcard lines up a photograph of Beiler with those of Republican officials U.S. Rep. Phil English and state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe.

Doerr allowed Beiler to read a victim impact statement.

"I got the shock of my life," Beiler said about hearing of the postcard, which was received by people in the mail on April 27.

Beiler chided Talarico, saying, "His only regret is that he got caught red-handed."

Beiler asked for $17,796 in restitution as the postcard likely cost him votes in the May primary.

He lost in the primary, placing third, 77 votes behind second place.

Beiler wants to repay $15,713 in campaign donations and keep $2,083 to reimburse his personal costs to run.

Talarico's private attorney, Thomas Farrell of Dreier LLP in Pittsburgh argued against restitution, saying it wasn't appropriate.

Doerr instructed both Farrell and McLean to file legal briefs to him in 10 days stating their stances on why restitution should be granted or denied.

Doerr said he did not want to render an immediate decision on whether to address restitution as the case was unusual.

Beiler also requested a restraining order against Talarico, a UPMC anesthesiologist.

"I am scheduled for several surgical operations at UPMC this year, and I would hate to see Dr. Talarico in the operating room anesthetizing me," Beiler said.

Doerr said while the court could not address the request, he would pass on the request to the director of probation, who could make it a condition of Talarico's probation.

Because Talarico went on ARD, the court could not assess him the $1,000 fine for the election violation.

However, the ARD program does include 60 hours of required community service, 10 of which is litter pickup.

Talarico also was ordered to pay court costs.

McLean said Talarico could not be prevented from being a member of a political group such as D-PAC.

However, both Talarico and Arlia have apparently resigned from D-PAC.

Though disappointed Talarico escaped the fine, Beiler was satisfied he still faces restitution costs and added probation requirements.

Upon Farrell's advice, Talarico declined to comment on the case.

Along with the $1,000 fine, Talarico originally faced a maximum 1-year jail term.