Report: Magistrate Judge Orenstein to be removed from bench for retraining

District Magistrate Xander Orenstein will reportedly be removed from the bench for retraining after releasing with no bail a man accused of driving the wrong way on Route 28, at 80 miles per hour.

The police chase began in O’Hara Township and ended in Pittsburgh.

Sources tell KDKA Radio’s Marty Griffin Orenstein will not hear a case for a least three months during retraining.

Griffin called Orenstein for comment but the judge refused to respond and hung up.

Troopers say the man they arrested after the dangerous chase threw a gun out of the vehicle’s window.

He was out on bond on a felony gun charge.

Orenstein has been criticized for a similar decision in the past.

In January, he released a man on non-monetary bail accused of beating a 71-year-old man Downtown.

Last September he released, again without cash bond, a drug suspect who was arrested with nine kilos of fentanyl at the Greyhound station.

That suspect, Yan Carlos Pichardo Cepeda, failed to appear at two court dates and was reportedly arrested in New York this week during a traffic stop.

Orenstein graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and has a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Elected in 2022, his term ends in 2028. He represents parts of Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Polish Hill.