BUTLER TWP — A Middlesex Township man barred from contact with his 4-year-old daughter will stand trial for allegedly taking the girl and leading police on a chase that ended with him being hit twice with a Taser.

James W. Kobert, 60, however, no longer faces any felony charges in the case.

Kobert on Thursday waived his preliminary hearing at the office of District Judge Kevin O'Donnell after Butler Township police withdrew a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer.

Police also agreed to reduce separate felony counts of custodial interference and fleeing or attempting to elude police, to a pair of misdemeanors.

"No one got hurt and my client has no prior criminal record,"said Kobert's attorney, Jerry Cassady, following the court proceedings. "He also told me he apologized to the officer."

Kobert is accused of going to his in-law's Plateau Street home March 25 and taking his daughter.

Stacy Kobert, 39, earlier that day had obtained a temporary protection from abuse order against her husband. The PFA prohibits the defendant from any contact with his wife and her family, and the couple's child, pending an April 10 court hearing.

Police from Butler and Middlesex townships and Saxonburg tracked Kobert to his Glade Mill Road home, but he again drove away in his pickup.

Officers chased him for about a mile before he pulled into the Clinton Presbyterian Church in neighboring Clinton Township.

The defendant got out of his truck and started walking toward one of the ButlerTownship officers, who had his pistol drawn.

Kobert refused police commands to stop, according to court documents. Instead he went to his pickup, where his daughter was seated.

As Kobert was about to get into the truck, a second Butler Township officer fired his Taser, hitting the defendant on the left shoulder.

Kobert fell to the ground but still refused to give up. When he tried to get off the ground, he was shot with a Taser a second time.

Police arrested the suspect and later reunited the girl with her mother.

Kobert, who is free on $25,000 bail, is also charged with simple assault, child endangerment, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, trespass and three traffic violations.