After two years of court appearances and an aborted trial, Butler's victim outreach center decided it didn't want to continue pursuing criminal harassment charges against a Westmoreland County woman, according to a spokesman with the state Attorney General's Office.

Butler police arrested Brittany A. Hartos, 27, of Irwin, Westmoreland County, on Oct. 15, 2018, for allegedly harassing four employees of Butler County's Victim Outreach Intervention Center. Police alleged that between April 23 and Sept. 26, 2018, Hartos made more than 300 harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, text messages and emails.

The case went to trial in February after Patrick Schulte, the senior deputy prosecuting the case for the attorney general, reduced the case to a summary harassment charge. Hartos declined to take a plea deal offered under the reduced charges, according to Hartos' lawyer, Victor Vouga.

But 30 minutes into the trial it was aborted after Vouga vehemently objected to what he called surprise evidence of 300 alleged phone calls Hartos made to VOICe.

“We wish her the best,” said Linda Strachan, VOICe's executive director. Strachan declined to elaborate on why they decided not to continue to pursue the case.

In Schulte's court filing last week, he informed the court his office was dropping the case, writing, “After consultation with the victims and cognizant of the unique circumstances COVID-19 has placed upon the administration of justice, the commonwealth avers that it is not in the interests of the judicial economy to proceed with this prosecution.”

Schulte concluded the filing with a warning for Hartos, writing that she “is on notice that future direct or indirect communication toward the victims in the (case) may subject her to a prosecution under the stalking statute.”

Vouga has maintained previously that Hartos did nothing wrong and was seeking help from VOICe at the time.

The organization's mission is to help “survivors” of domestic violence through various resources. Hartos stayed in its residential facility starting in 2017.

She was dismissed from the housing facility after she was charged with threatening Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger through a call to a suicide prevention hot line. The criminal charge constitutes a violation of the agency's sublease. That case has since been dropped by the Attorney General's Office.

“My client has been consistent from the very beginning that she's not guilty of what they're saying she did,” Vouga previously said when Hartos refused to accept a plea deal. “There's not too many people (who) stick to their principles down to the wire like this.”