[1] After graduating from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Zappala began his undergraduate studies at the University of Delaware, where he played linebacker.
[7] Zappala was later involved in a dispute with Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Stephen A. Bucar over whether the city police bureau should change its eyewitness identification procedures.
[10] In 2021, Zappala sent an email to his prosecutors directing them not to offer plea deals to black attorney Milton Raiford, who had voiced criticisms about the criminal justice system.
[11][12][13][14][15] Raiford had publicly accused Zappala's office of being "systematically racist" and making varying plea offers depending on skin color during a court hearing.
[12][13] In his email, sent five days later, Zappala asserted that Raiford's cases should proceed based on the information as filed, and any withdrawal of charges would require approval by the front office.
[12][13] The policy was criticized by legal experts, civil rights groups, public officials, and criminal justice advocates as unethical, discriminatory, vindictive, and an abuse of power.
[12] Mariani, who had presided over the court hearing where Raiford voiced his criticisms, feared that Zappala's email policy could infringe on defendants' rights to effective counsel and equal protection under the law.
[12] The Allegheny County Bar Association declared Zappala's email "unacceptable" in a statement on June 3, 2021, expressing concern over its potential effect on justice access and the rights of criminal defendants.
[18][19][20][21] His challenger, Matt Dugan, served as the chief public defender of Allegheny County and ran as a progressive candidate, campaigning on promises of criminal justice reform and diverting low-level offenders from incarceration.
On October 26, 2023, during an interview on "The Big K Morning Show with Larry Richert and Marty Griffin" on KDKA Radio, Zappala discussed the idea of suing the City of Pittsburgh to place the police force under federal receivership.
He may be referring to a 1997 investigation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, which was undertaken to see whether there was a "pattern or practice" of unconstitutionality or civil rights abuses,[25] but whether this was his intended meaning or not is unclear.
"[26] In the same interview on "The Big K Morning Show with Larry Richert and Marty Griffin" on KDKA Radio, Zappala also spoke about his opponent, Matt Dugan, explaining, "They're being funded by... what's his name?
Unlike this claim, Dugan's campaign was supported by the Pennsylvania Justice and Public Safety PAC, which is not a "dark money" group as it is transparent about its donor.