Allegheny County’s Cruel Campaign Against Bodily Integrity & Religious Freedom & the Grassroots Lawsuit Seeking Justice

By Shane Chesher

This is the story of 15 different individuals who had no idea their lives would be
intertwined with each other one day. It is a story that begins in August of 2021, where
most of these 15 individuals did not know each other, but their faith and their
sovereignty would bring them together against the evil put against them. The
Individuals have more in common than just their faith, they
all worked for Allegheny County, which resides in southwestern Pennsylvania, and
contains Pittsburgh, PA.

This group of individuals is not defined by any particular career, but runs the gamut from laborer, office manager, permit supervisor, engineer,
human resource representative, nutritionist, food safety employee, dental
assistant, WIC employee, agency on aging aide, court clerk, tuck pointer to medical professionals. A most diverse group of individuals.

In March of 2020, Allegheny County employees were deemed
‘essential, and that followed on throughout the pandemic as their work and duty
was not interrupted. For several of these employees with Allegheny County
there pay during the beginning and height of the pandemic was actually
a sum less than people who were unemployed because of the pandemic. The
A 600-dollar weekly stipend on top of the regular unemployment pay gave people a
comfortable paycheck to sit at home. It is important to understand this and remember this as the story unfolds.

First the Mask Mandate

Allegheny County did not do much to take care of its employees during the pandemic. Their primary “tools” were masking and social distancing. To “protect the public” at playgrounds, under Allegheny County management, the playgrounds were sprayed with a bleach mix once a day. Moreover, to protect people after receiving the WIC cards, they had to be wiped off with Clorox wipes. At Kane Hospital employees were given a paper bag to keep their disposable masks in, so
that they could be reused. Allegheny County hired Zero-Res to clean certain
facilities twice throughout the pandemic. Some of the employees were hired.
during the height of the pandemic, and no masks were worn by upper
management during the hiring process. None of these employees were deemed a threat until the vaccine mandate was instituted.

The work remained the same throughout the pandemic, no different than any
other employee at Allegheny County. Sometime in early 2021, Allegheny County offered a 100-dollar bonus for anyone who would get the COVID-19 vaccine and provide proof. This set alarm bells off to a lot of Allegheny County employees because it wasn’t normal for them to offer money for anything, let alone an experimental vaccine.

Measures were relaxed in 2021 for most of the year and then began to ramp up again in the middle of the summer. A laborer contract was signed in June 2021 with no mention of
mandatory vaccines to be added to the contract. Later it was mentioned that the reason mandatory vaccines weren’t talked about was because cases weren’t surging at that time.

The Delta variant started filling the news waves. Cases were
going up, and mandate talk was becoming more prevalent. On August 9, 2021, after the mandate was announced, Allegheny County announced a testing mandate for all unvaccinated employees. It was also announced that the unvaccinated employees must wear masks, and vaccinated employees do not have to wear masks. Only unvaccinated employees were required to test weekly. Thus was created a two tier classification of employees: the unvaccinated and the vaccinated. It became easy to identify your medical choice or even religious view by visibly wearing a mask.

Unvaccinated employees were now longer denied COVID leave, while vaccinated employees were entitled to COVID leave. Vaccinated employees were still contracting COVID-19 and
spreading COVID-19 when this new policy went into effect. Allegheny County was
well aware of vaccinated employees getting COVID, but that did not stop them
from pushing forward with tyrannical policies divorced from scientific support.

On August 23, 2021, it was announced that Pfizer’s “Comirnaty” was approved by the FDA. This approval really got the ball moving forward to mandate employees to be vaccinated. It must be
mentioned that this particular “vaccine” was not available in the U.S. nor has it been since.
It’s important to keep in mind that at this point in time, the vaccines were not even
out for a year, they were still experimental, and they were rushed to be
manufactured, and the vaccine’s ingredients were not disclosed to anyone. This
directly violates informed consent.

By September 2021, the weekly testing for the unvaccinated employees had launched. Testing
took place in parking lots, employee entrances, and offices administered by a third party, Curative, from parked van. The testing process, like most things at
Allegheny County was extremely flawed. You had to take two tests sometimes.
one rapid test and another test that would give results in 72 hours. If you tested
positive for the rapid, you had to take the second test.

These PCR tests, never designed or licensed for diagnosis were
known to be inaccurate, and most certainly were, to say the least.
There were occurrences where people tested positive on the rapid test and the
employee would have to take two to three days off, only to find out they tested
negative on the second test, and they could come back to work. If you did the test
positive on the second test, you had to be off for 10 working days and were
no longer entitled to COVID leave.  Meanwhile, vaccinated employees were
spreading COVID-19, causing outbreaks in certain situations, and getting paid for COVID
leave, and are still not required to be tested. Furthermore, the testing was also a
breach of privacy, as we have learned since DNA from these tests were
sold by third parties.

Then the “Vaccine” Mandate

On September 9, 2021, Joe Biden announced the federal mandate to be vaccinated or required to be tested if not vaccinated. Three weeks later, on September 29, 2021, Allegheny County
Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced a new mandate for Allegheny County. Employees must be vaccinated by December 1, 2021, or be fired.  To better understand Rich Fitzgerald’s thought process and mentality, here are some quotes from Fitzgerald.

“You may have short-term disruption, where you might have an employee or two
that will decide not to work there, but over the long term, you’ll be in a safer
workplace where you know all the people you are working with are vaccinated. That
just makes everything safer, for that 8-hour, 10-hour, or however long you are
working at your place of employment, to know that the folks that are coming in
contact with those who are vaccinated. So, you’re not going to be taking that illness back to
your family or getting yourself sick.”

“We feel very comfortable that this can be a condition of employment.” …
“And obviously, this can go to court.”

“It becomes very difficult for the unvaccinated to really get full employment and
quite frankly, function with what’s happening in society right now.”

“Week after week, we see how safe they are, how effective they are, and
how dangerous it is to not be vaccinated.”

“January 1 will be a year since these vaccines have been available.
We know how safe they are, we know how effective they are, and we know how they
stopped the spread of this deadly disease.”

“These vaccine cards are something people are going to be showing a lot of
of.  Folks who are not vaccinated are going to be isolated from society.”

These quotes help to show the derision and outright unlawful discrimination the unvaccinated employees faced

Official Misinformation

A myth vs. fact sheet was provided by Allegheny County to unvaccinated
employees to clear up any misconceptions those employees might have had. This sheet did not age well in Allegheny County.  Many of their stated myths turned out to be true, and some of the facts turned out to be false.  Here are a few examples:

Myth: Vaccines cause infertility.
Fact: No evidence supports this. The truth is that COVID-19 vaccines do not affect
the fertility of women who are seeking to become pregnant.
This has been proven to be false as initial bio-distribution studies, known to the FDA, proved that ingredients in the shots accumulated significantly in the ovaries and testes.  Tens of thousands of reports have been made to health authorities across the globe of the significant impact these shots have had on menstruation and maternal mortality and morbidity.

Myth: If you’ve had COVID-19, you don’t need to get vaccinated.
Fact: Even if you had COVID, getting the vaccine is beneficial by bolstering your
immune response to the virus The immune response from the vaccine is stronger.
and longer-lasting than a natural infection.
This has been proven to be false. No vaccine has ever demonstrated a greater affect on immunity than natural infection.  In fact getting vaccinated in close time proximity to an infection of Covid-19 raises the risk of an adverse outcome significantly.

Myth: The vaccines were rushed and therefore developed too quickly for
anyone to be certain they are safe.
Fact: The science is solid. These vaccines are rooted in well-established
technologies used to develop other vaccines. They underwent extensive testing in
tens of thousands of people. They have been given to millions across the
country. The vaccine is safer than the COVID-19 virus, which contributed to the
death of nearly 2,132 Allegheny County residents.
This has been proven to be false and was false at the time.
These are just a few examples to give context and paint a picture of what the
unvaccinated employees were dealing with at the time.

Allegheny County Institutes Fake Faith Review Boards

By law, Allegheny County was required to allow for medical and religious
exemptions. This requirement introduced a stressful process for the
unvaccinated employees. Many employees filed for a religious
exemption, some filed both medical and religious exemptions, and a few filed
only medical exemptions.

The weekly testing regime for the “unvaccinated” had the silver lining of allowing fellow employees to identify, build solidarity and share notes
on how to file an exemption. Everyone started working together and sharing ideas on how to file an exemption to help preserve them from possibly losing their job. Once an exemption was
filed the employees were contacted to set up an interactive process.

The interactive process consisted of asking questions about your job, your daily
duties, your faith or religion, and anything else Allegheny County deems to be
useful in determining whether to grant you an exemption. This created an
incredibly stressful situation for the employees. Most people weren’t used to
being questioned about their faith, medical background, or religion. Employees
called this process horrific and have talked about having severe anxiety, angst,
discomfort, and even panic attacks.

For a lot of the employees, the interactive process didn’t seem very sincere on Allegheny County’s end. Moreover, employees have described the interviewer as cold and uncaring. This proved to
be true, because shortly after, letters started being received by employees.
denying their religious and medical exemptions. What was the reason, you ask?

‘Undue hardship’ was the reason, according to Allegheny County.  Letters were
sent to almost all the employees with the same exact verbiage explaining why
they had been denied their exemption. Some employees had their interactive
process and received the same denial letter the next day by mail, essentially
making it an impossibility that a sincere review or a review at all was adjudicated.

This cold hand put forward by Allegheny County made it clear it was not having
anyone working if unvaccinated. After receiving the letters, employees started to
set up a protest in downtown Pittsburgh at the County Office Building for early
November. This peaceful protest was the beginning of new relationships that
continue to the present. The protest got the attention of local news stations. A
group of over 100 individuals assembled, expressing their frustration and
attempting to turn over an unfair and tyrannical mandate.

While the protest helped to bring light to the situation, the employees were
facing, it also helped to build camaraderie. Some of the
employees facing the mandate had no one to help and no one to even talk to or
express their thoughts and feelings. In addition to this protest, there were two
more protests shortly after. The next protest was at the Allegheny County
Christmas Tree Lighting Employees gathered with their same exemption denial
letters and hung them on the Christmas tree in the courtyard of the courthouse
where the tree lighting was being held.

This action spoke volumes of what the employees were facing, as they were slated to be fired three weeks before Christmas. The letter ornaments did not hang well with Allegheny County, as they ripped down the exemption denial letters from the tree. The tree lighting protest ended ceremony abruptly.

Finally, the last protest was outside Rich Fitzgerald’s house on the eve of the night, the employees were to be fired. These protests helped the employees to cope somewhat through the stressful period they were going
through and really did help shed light on their situation being covered by the local
news.

KDKA reached out to find an employee who would share their story about
being fired. Shane Chesher (that’s me) sat down for an interview with Jennifer
Barrasso. The local news story went surprisingly viral and helped to bring more
exposure and more public support. The interview also helped to start connecting
more of the individuals who were about to be fired from their careers. On
On December 1, 2021, the employees began to be fired. Not all the employees
were fired on the same day.

The Lawsuit

Around September 2022, a group was formed to begin working on a
lawsuit. Tony Pellegrino, a lawsuit educator, began to educate a small group of
individuals on how to file their own lawsuit without a lawyer. The money raised
from the first fundraiser, along with contributions from the group, helped to pay
for the education they were getting.  More uncharted territory was beginning
to be explored, and this was exciting and frightening simultaneously. Each of
The individuals began formulating their own affidavit, a sworn testimony of what occurred to them.

An affidavit is subject to perjury charges if proven to be false.
The group started meeting every week via Zoom, working earnestly to file their
own lawsuit and be pro se litigants in federal court. The weekly meetings would
Start with prayer and end with prayer. The group understood that without God, they
wouldn’t have been able to stand up to the tyranny and hardship they
experienced. Their faith is what ultimately brought them together, and what
will ultimately lead them to victory. If God is for us, who can be against us?

In the first weeks of in December 2022, the group met again at Eat n Park, where they put their signatures on the federal lawsuit against Allegheny County. On December 16, 2022,
A group of 13 individuals filed a multiple plaintiff pro se lawsuit against Allegheny
County. A press release was announced shortly after the reading.

All Allegheny County employees were informed through elected officials and
other county supervisory leadership, primarily Rich Fitzgerald, that employment
would be terminated if they did not receive COVID-19 vaccines by December 1.
2021. A total of approximately 92 employees were fired as a result of this
mandate. A group of faithful employees with 154 combined years of service who
dedicated their lives and careers to Allegheny County decided to fight back
and file a federal lawsuit against Allegheny County for deprivation of their
constitutionally protected civil rights, among many other violations. Due to the
fact that a federal lawsuit can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer
and court fees, we have unanimously elected as a group to file pro se as
individuals.

While this route may seem unconventional, we also feel who better to
represent ourselves better than us as individuals after the detriment of treatment we
have endured. We have God-given rights protected by the U.S. Constitution and
believe they have been egregiously violated. We believe that the law is on our side
and constitutional provisions will prevail. At this point in time last year, Allegheny
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald declared that “the unvaccinated will be
outcast from society. We beg to differ as our legal challenge places at the front of civil society. Allegheny County, led by Rich
Fitzgerald did their best to bully us, and we stood strong in our convictions against
their coercive measures. In conclusion, we stood up to the bully, and now we’re
fighting back!

After all the defendants had been served sometime in early January 2023, the
group decided to amend the complaint. By amending the
complaint, this allowed two more individuals to join the lawsuit, bringing the total
number of litigants to 15. Allegheny County used many legal tricks to delay their
response to the lawsuit. Their first tactic was to claim improper service that buys
Them another 60 days to respond to the lawsuit. At this point in time, the litigants
were looking to buy some time as well, so they waived service, giving Allegheny
County 60 days to respond. Early in February of 2023, the litigants held another
fundraiser at the Hula Bar. This fundraiser was absolutely amazing. A great
turnout, a great time, and 7,000 dollars were raised at the fundraiser! The group
had watched God truly move that day, as they had so many times before.

God moved again for them with a give-send-go where more money was raised along
with a 2500-dollar donation from Pennsylvania Coalition for Informed Consent (PCIC)! The legal process continued in late March, where Allegheny County asked for a motion for extension, which in turn would be granted. Another motion for extension would be granted after that.

Around late April to early May of 2023, Tony Pellegrino reached out to Pacific
Justice Institute, and made a connection with an attorney, Karyn White. Pacific
Justice and Karyn White expressed interest in assisting the group with their
lawsuit. In late May of 2023, Allegheny County followed the judge’s rules by
conferring with the litigants on filing a motion for dismissal, giving the option to
amend the complaint before it is filed. Karyn White worked promptly on
amending the complaint and was mostly well received by the group. The group
agreed to move forward with the amended complaint, and it was filed on June 23.
2023, almost exactly six months after the original complaint was filed. Allegheny
County filed the motion to dismiss and the motion to sever on July 12, 2023. A
A motion to dismiss is trying to say that the litigants do not have a claim or legal standing.

The motion to sever is an attempt to separate the group so that all are required to file
separate legal action. Karyn White assisted in responding to both motions.
Allegheny County has put their replies in court, with the last being filed on
August 21, 2023. As of today, August 26, 2023, the 15 litigants are awaiting the
judge’s decision on the motion to dismiss and motion to sever with no timeframe
on those decisions.

The story of the 15 is unfinished and undetermined, but they hold strong faith in this essential and important legal battle and pray that justice will be served. These 15 would love to leave you all with a message.

Never give up. Do not lose hope. Do not waver. Do not be anxious. Do not fear.
Be bold. Be strong. Be courageous. Set yourself apart from others; you weren’t
made to fit in, you were born to stand out! So, stand tall and stand strong! It will
change your life for the better, and it will give you so much purpose you never
knew you had! God will protect you, provide for you, carry you, and get you
through things you never thought possible! The group would have never been
able to do this without God, and we give all the glory to God!

To support Shane Chesher and his fellow litigants you can help them at GiveSendGo

Another interview with Shane can be found here.