\n\t\t\t\t\t\tReserve Township Police Officer Manuel Pihakis has been suspended without pay as he faces criminal charges in two states, according to Reserve Township Police Chief Brandon Morgan.Pihakis, 36, was first charged in Sumter County, Florida, where court documents allege he bit a woman at a community pool and struck her in the back of the head at his family\u2019s home. Following these charges, Pihakis was placed on administrative leave by the Reserve Township Police Department. More than two weeks later, Pihakis was charged again, this time in Ohio Township, Pennsylvania. Investigators say Pihakis committed retail theft at a Giant Eagle and a nearby Target over several months. According to court documents, Pihakis was caught on camera skip scanning\u2014scanning some items at checkout while skipping others, placing all items into his bags, and leaving. Police say the thefts occurred repeatedly from December 2025 through April 2026. The criminal complaint states Pihakis stole $283.08 worth of merchandise from Target and $167.45 worth of items from Giant Eagle, including Dove soap, Red Bull, and Twizzlers. In light of these new charges, Reserve Township Chief Brandon Morgan has issued another statement\u2014that Officer Pihakis is suspended without pay from the department\u2014and he tells me his status will be discussed in their June council meeting.Pihakis is charged with battery in Florida and retail theft in Pennsylvania, both misdemeanors. His Pennsylvania case is scheduled to go before a judge next month.Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tRESERVE TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Reserve Township Police Officer Manuel Pihakis has been suspended without pay as he faces criminal charges in two states, according to Reserve Township Police Chief Brandon Morgan.<\/p>\n
Pihakis, 36, was first charged in Sumter County, Florida, where court documents allege he bit a woman at a community pool and struck her in the back of the head at his family\u2019s home. Following these charges, Pihakis was placed on administrative leave by the Reserve Township Police Department. <\/p>\n
More than two weeks later, Pihakis was charged again, this time in Ohio Township, Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n
Investigators say Pihakis committed retail theft at a Giant Eagle and a nearby Target over several months. According to court documents, Pihakis was caught on camera skip scanning\u2014scanning some items at checkout while skipping others, placing all items into his bags, and leaving. <\/p>\n
Police say the thefts occurred repeatedly from December 2025 through April 2026. The criminal complaint states Pihakis stole $283.08 worth of merchandise from Target and $167.45 worth of items from Giant Eagle, including Dove soap, Red Bull, and Twizzlers. <\/p>\n
In light of these new charges, Reserve Township Chief Brandon Morgan has issued another statement\u2014that Officer Pihakis is suspended without pay from the department\u2014and he tells me his status will be discussed in their June council meeting.<\/p>\n
Pihakis is charged with battery in Florida and retail theft in Pennsylvania, both misdemeanors. <\/p>\n
His Pennsylvania case is scheduled to go before a judge next month.<\/p>\n
Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reserve Township Police Officer Manuel Pihakis has been suspended without pay as he faces criminal charges in two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1330,21094,28,30,29,115445,30835,5254,115446,115,4347,15041,7602,115444,115442,115447,115443,2445,30837],"class_list":["post-268901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-charge","tag-court-document","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-giant-eagle","tag-item","tag-merchandise","tag-nearby-target","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-pay","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pihakis","tag-reserve-township","tag-reserve-township-officer","tag-reserve-township-police-department","tag-retail-theft","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}