PITTSBURGH—A Pittsburgh-area man has filed a federal lawsuit contending he was wrongly jailed for six months after he was arrested for failing to make a restitution payment while on probation in a 1999 theft case.

Thirty-year-old Shawn O'Hara, of Penn Hills, says an Allegheny County judge issued a warrant for his arrest in September and that he was supposed to be given a hearing on the probation violation within three days. Instead, O'Hara claims he inexplicably sat in the county jail without a hearing until he was released in March.

O'Hara's attorney charges that the county courts system "negligently or intentionally did not schedule a hearing."

A county spokeswoman says she cannot comment on litigation.