A Butler County Common Pleas Court judge will order an attorney, who was appointed as receiver of business records from the closed nonprofit Grace Youth and Family Foundation in Butler, to provide those records and other records to founder William Halle as a part of his defense against charges of sexually assaulting a volunteer or employee.

Butler police have charged Halle, a former Butler Area School board member, with having a sexual relationship in 2023 with a 17-year-old girl who worked at the foundation.

On Thursday, Judge Maura Palumbi said she will issue an order for the receiver, attorney Michael Pater, to schedule a time for Halle’s attorney Joel Hills to review the records and copy the records, but retain the originals in case he is called as a witness to testify.

She also granted Hills access to any item in Pater’s custody, including additional foundation records and Halle’s personal property that he said is being stored in three 30-foot storage containers in a McKeesport storage facility.

Hills said Senior Judge William Shaffer issued an order in December 2024 instructing the district attorney’s office turn over all of the records. Palumbi issued another order to compel discovery in February this year.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford said she has turned over all records in her office’s possession to Hills, except for a laptop computer from the foundation and the receipt for the laptop from the state police crime lab in Greensburg, which is examining the computer.

She said her office never had the laptop, but Pater did before it was sent to the crime lab. She said she is not planning to introduce evidence from the laptop.

Pater has already agreed to schedule a meeting with Hills to provide him with the foundation records, Pitchford added.

Hills said he believes information contained in the laptop is exculpatory, or favorable, to Halle.