HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Penn Run man facing trial for his alleged role in the 2022 overdose death of 41-year-old Joseph Charles Sr. filed a motion Monday asking for the dismissal of his charges due to a “miscarriage of justice.”

Eldon Allen Sajko, 56, filed the handwritten motion “by and through counsel” alleging his May 2024 conviction of illegal firearm possession was “the fruit of an illegal Altoona police search” and destruction of body-worn camera evidence.

Sajko was sentenced to 10 to 20 years’ incarceration in October 2024. He was also sentenced to serve 57 months after being convicted on federal drug charges.

Sajko’s firearm charges were severed from his drug delivery resulting in death and related charges in Blair County court, paving the way for a third jury trial.

In his motion, Sajko alleged that his conviction on the firearms charges relied “exclusively” on physical evidence seized during an illegal, warrantless search by Altoona police.

Officers searched Sajko’s residence along Route 422 after Sajko displayed a gun while they were attempting to serve an arrest warrant in relation to the Feb. 18, 2022, overdose death of Charles. State police allegedly traced the drugs responsible for Charles’ death to Sajko following a monthslong investigation.

The search yielded 10 guns, ammunition and suspected narcotics.

Sajko wrote that the search was “conducted without probable cause or valid consent” and because the prosecution “failed to produce the objective body-worn camera video” the court would have to form a negative assumption “that the missing footage would have conclusively exposed the illegality of the officers’ search.”

“Because the trial conviction is entirely derived from unconstitutionally tainted evidence, allowing the conviction to stand constitutes manifest miscarriage of justice,” Sajko wrote.

In a separate handwritten motion, Sajko challenged the legality of his arrest warrant and subsequent detention “based on a lack of probable cause” and the “presence of subterfuge” by Charles.

Sajko alleged that evidence in the case reveals that Charles “posed as a DEA agent” to coerce him into obtaining controlled substances and that he acted “under the false pretense that he was cooperating with law enforcement.”

“If the affidavit of probable cause failed to disclose this coercion or the decedent’s impersonation, it was based on an incomplete and misleading factual basis, rendering the warrant ineffective,” Sajko wrote.

He also argued that the prosecution “failed to present evidence … the substances he reportedly provided actually caused the fatal overdose.”

“(Charles’) text messages promising a ‘promotion’ and ‘cleared papers’ in exchange for drug buys represent a form of entrapment or coercion,” Sajko wrote. “If these facts were known to investigators but omitted from the warrant affidavit, the warrant is subject to challenge for a violation of due process.”

At the end of each motion, Sajko requested the dismissal of all charges against him.

During a call of the list hearing Tuesday, Judge Jackie Atherton Bernard granted defense attorney Kristen Anastasi’s motion to withdraw as Sajko’s counsel. Sajko then indicated to Bernard that he would apply for the public defender’s office.

Bernard also ordered the District Attorney’s Office to provide any discovery, including body-worn camera footage, to the public defender’s office.

Blair County DA Pete Weeks then confirmed for Bernard that Sajko had been offered a concurrent sentence in exchange for guilty pleas in the drug delivery resulting in death case but had not received a decision from Sajko.

Sajko is scheduled to appear June 8 for a trial list review hearing, with Bernard canceling his jury selection on June 22. He is currently being housed at the Blair County Prison.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.