Ex-Detective Fined $200 After Hindering Prosecution Plea

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A former Pittsburgh homicide detective accused of filing false police reports and evidence-tampering has been fined $200 after pleading no contest to two counts.  Fifty-three-year-old Margaret Sherwood entered the no contest plea Friday to hindering prosecution or apprehension by providing false information to law enforcement. In such a plea, a defendant doesn’t acknowledge guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.  State prosecutors accused her of providing false information in two 2014 slayings and trying to scuttle a domestic violence prosecution of a jailhouse informant.  Sherwood was hired as a police officer in 1989 and retired in June 2018 after 27 years.  Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey suggested that his client was a “scapegoat” and said she wanted to get on with her life.