WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- A judge in Luzerne County has extended a protection from abuse order filed by State Representative Tara Toohil. She claims a fellow lawmaker pointed a gun at her. The PFA will be in force for another three years.
For most of the morning, lawyers for Toohil and her ex-boyfriend State Representative Nick Miccarelli spent the morning behind closed doors.
A court spokesperson said the two sides were negotiating a settlement to the protection from abuse order.
Representative Toohil arrived about 20 minutes before the hearing. In her deposition for a protection from abuse order, Rep. Toohil claims her former boyfriend, State Representative Nick Miccarelli, from Delaware County, near Philadelphia, pulled a gun on her, and threatened a to kill her and then himself.
She adds Miccarelli drove 100 miles per hour, threatening to crash as Toohil was a passenger.
But why are these six-year-old alleged incidents coming into play now?
"There is no expiration date on fear, number one, and there has been incidents that justified our coming here and asking for the PFA," said Toohil's attorney Jarrett Ferentino.
In her PFA application, Toohil says Miccarelli recently tried to intimidate her into keeping quiet after two women complained Miccarelli physically and sexually harassed them.
"Miss Toohil came forward after other women came forward," Ferentino said.
"We are safer today," said Rep. Toohil after the hearing.
In court, a judge ordered Miccarelli to stay away from Toohil for three years. Miccarelli's lawyers point out the terms of this three year PFA show he is not admitting to Toohil's claims of death threats.
It also lifts the court-ordered ban that kept him away from the State House in Harrisburg for the past three days.
"And today, he goes back to the capitol, as rightfully he should," said Miccarelli's attorney Joe Podraza.
But Capitol Police are looking at added protection for Toohil at the capitol building.
And Miccarelli can now only carry a firearm when he is on duty for the National Guard and he remains under a PFA until 2021.
"If that's what settles this matter, that I have no contact with her as I've had none for a long period of time, I'm OK with that," Rep. Miccarelli said.
Miccarelli is being investigated by the Dauphin County district attorney's office in Harrisburg, and by lawyers from the Pennsylvania State House.
The State House investigation is expected to wrap up in the next two weeks.
Republican leaders in the state house have called on Miccarelli to resign.