T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Former Shadyside Village Council member Nick Ferrelli appears in Belmont County Eastern Division Court and has a trial set on charges of menacing by stalking in connection with a village employee.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Former Shadyside Village Council member Nick Ferrelli waived his right to a speedy trial on Thursday morning and will face a jury on Aug. 18 after he was accused of stalking a village employee.

Ferrelli recently was charged with menacing by stalking in connection with a village employee.

On Thursday, he was represented by attorney Theodore Tsoras, while the state of Ohio was represented by Belmont County Eastern Division Court Prosecutor Joshua Norman. The parties involved dealt with some scheduling conflicts while arranging to conduct the trial.

“This court’s next available jury trial date is not until July 28, so I will set this for a jury trial on July 28,” Eastern Division Judge David Trouten said.

However, Tsoras informed Trouten that he is not available on July 28 due to being in court on a different case.

Trouten then told Tsoras that if Ferrelli was willing to waive his right to a speedy trial, he could set a jury trial for 8 a.m. Aug. 18 in Eastern Division Court.

Tsoras said Ferrelli agreed to waive that right and have the jury trial scheduled for Aug. 18. He added that he had spoken with Norman in hopes of crafting a plea deal that Ferrelli would accept, but Norman has not yet sent him a plea deal offer.

“We’ve had several discussions about trying to resolve this matter short of a trial but haven’t had any discussions recently,” Tsoras said.

In December 2023, Ferrelli stepped down after serving six years on council.

On Aug. 26 in a closed-door session, the village council hired Michael Shaheen of Shaheen Law Group as outside counsel but refused to comment on why Shaheen was being retained.

Once Ferrelli was charged in April, Shadyside Police Chief Don Collette confirmed that Shaheen had been hired to handle the case against Ferrelli due to former village Solicitor Thomas Ryncarz having a conflict of interest after serving the village at the same time as Ferrelli.