HOLLIDAYSBURG — Altoona police officers lawfully detained and arrested Luigi Mangione on Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, according to the Blair County district attorney’s office seeking to preserve the legality of the arrest and evidence seized.

In a document filed Friday in Blair County court, District Attorney Pete Weeks and First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith countered and rejected arguments that defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey made in February and March to challenge Mangione’s arrest in Altoona, five days after U.S. health insurance CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in New York City.

“The Commonwealth respectfully submits that the Altoona Police Department officers were required to respond to the dispatch involving defendant Mangione, personally corroborated the information provided by the 911 caller, conducted a lawful investigatory detention, lawfully effectuated a probable cause arrest for the forged identification and lawfully executed a search warrant to arrest and inventory search defendant Mangione’s property,” Weeks and Smith wrote in support of their request for a judge to dismiss challenges filed on the defendant’s behalf.

Mangione, who is currently incarcerated in New York where he is accused of killing Thompson, was in federal court Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to murder, stalking and a firearm offense. On Thursday, federal prosecutors declared their intent to pursue the death penalty.

In Blair County, Mangione is charged with forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, possessing an instrument of crime, tampering with records and providing false ID to law enforcement officers. Altoona police arrested him at the Plank Road McDonald’s on those charges and seized 27 items in his possession, including a gun believed to be used in Thompson’s killing.

Mangione was at McDonald’s having breakfast, after fleeing New York City and traveling by bus from Pittsburgh to Altoona.

In raising legal challenges to Mangione’s arrest, Dickey argued that Altoona police went to the restaurant in response to a report of a suspicious customer — then acted without sufficient justification.

The defense attorney indicated that a review of police body camera video showed officers positioning themselves around Mangione to restrict his freedom, thereby violating his due process rights and protection against unlawful search and seizures.

In the document filed Friday in Blair County court, Weeks and Smith reported that the police officers found Mangione seated at a table with his back to the wall — a seat that Mangione chose before officers arrived.

“Any inference that they physically trapped him is disingenuous,” the prosecutors maintained in the document filed Friday.

Within Dickey’s challenges, he argued that as more police officers arrived at McDonald’s, Mangione became confined — prior to his detention or arrest — where he would have had to pass by seven to 10 officers.

Weeks and Smith said the officers were following proper procedures.

“The officers had valid reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory detention to identify who defendant Mangione was and whether he was a homicide suspect,” they said.

They also said that Mangione voluntarily spoke to the officers and willingly provided what turned out to be a forged New Jersey driver’s license.

Within the challenges Dickey made, he pointed out that Mangione was illegally detained for 17 minutes at the restaurant before being read his Miranda Rights.

Prosecutors blamed that on the forged license.

“A dispatcher will inherently take a longer period of time to search for and decisively exclude the absence of information, than needed to confirm existing identification,” Weeks and Smith said.

Dickey also objected to how Altoona police separated Mangione from his backpack and belongings, which were placed behind other officers.

Weeks and Smith countered that police officers, for their own safety and for the safety of others, are allowed to separate a suspect from bags or items that may contain weapons or evidence.

During Mangione’s arrest and an authorized search of his belongings, officers found a firearm, believed to be the gun used to kill Thompson, and ammunition.

Among other items removed from Mangione’s bag, a red notebook that police referred to as a manifesto has generated arguments.

Dickey maintains that the police characterized the notebook as a manifesto to prejudice Mangione and put him in a negative light before the public.

Weeks and Smith maintained that the case provides “abundant circumstantial evidence” to call the notebook a manifesto, based on a dictionary definition of “a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives or views of its issuer.”

Mangione’s red notebook reportedly contains entries describing plans for going to a conference and killing a CEO, according to a New York Times story published in December reflecting information that law enforcement officers provided.

Judge Jackie Bernard, who is managing and presiding over Mangione’s case in Blair County, will have the responsibility of weighing the arguments and positions taken by the attorneys. It will also be up to Bernard to decide if she wants to schedule a pre-trial hearing.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.