CEO Of Pa. Insurer Highmark Charged With Assault

PITTSBURGH -- The chief executive officer of a major western Pennsylvania insurance company is facing charges of simple assault and defiant trespass relating to a fight with the husband of an employee he was having an affair with.

Highmark Inc. CEO Kenneth Melani, 58, was charged Wednesday by police in Oakmont in Allegheny County.

Melani allegedly showed up Sunday afternoon at the home of Mark Myler, who is married to Melissa Myler, local media reported.

She told officers she has been having an affair with Melani since shortly after he hired her to work at Highmark in October 2011. In January, according to a criminal complaint, Melani's wife discovered the affair and told Mark Myler.

That prompted Melissa Myler to move out of their home on Canterbury Court in Oakmont and in with Melani, according to the complaint.

Highmark spokesman Michael Weinstein said in a statement that the situation is a personal matter and that Melani is taking an unpaid leave from the company.

Melani's attorney, Robert Del Greco, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

A woman who answered the phone at Melani's home in Cheswick said he was not home and hung up.

Pittsburgh-based Highmark is an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. It provides insurance to more than 4.8 million members in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and had total combined revenue of $14.6 billion in 2010.