Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 103

A Fayette County drug kingpin will not receive a shortened prison sentence for ordering the 1993 killing of a man whose heart and liver were later transplanted into a dying Gov. Robert Casey. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger this week rejected a request from Ronald Whethers to count...

Westmoreland County’s drug court on Thursday graduated four more participants, bringing the number of former addicts who obtained sobriety under judicial supervision to 39 during the six years of the program. Thursday marked the eighth graduation ceremony since the court was unveiled in 2014. “This is a very intensive program...

The spigots are back on at Westmoreland Manor. County officials said the latest test results found no traces of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease in the water at the Hempfield nursing home. “Effective Feb. 17, 2020, all water precautions in place at Westmoreland Manor were lifted due to the...

Attempted murder counts were added to the list of charges against two Jeannette men accused of shooting a Greensburg resident nearly four years ago in his home. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani on Wednesday signed off on a request by prosecutors to amend the charges against Daishawn...

The names of jurors in the public corruption trial of former Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held should be made public, a Tribune-Review attorney argued in court Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the state’s Superior Court heard arguments in Pittsburgh on the Trib’s appeal of a lower court ruling that withheld...

Lawyers for a Hempfield doctor contend a state lawsuit against drug makers could bolster his defense against a murder charge he faces for allegedly overprescribing medication that led to a patient’s death. Defense attorneys Brian Aston and Ken Noga said claims made in the lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney...

The lawyer for former Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held argued Tuesday that not enough evidence exists to warrant the continued prosecution of the now-private citizen on public corruption offenses. Held, 45, of Hempfield is awaiting a second trial for allegations he directed on-duty staffers to participate in reelection campaign activities...

As voters and candidates waited for days to get results of this month’s Iowa caucuses, Beth Lechman sat hundreds of miles away in her Westmoreland County home and imaged the nightmare that state’s elections officials were enduring. It is one Lechman hopes to avoid in April, when Pennsylvania voters go...

A Greater Latrobe Area School District policy that seeks reassessments of some newly purchased properties is the target of a lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County. Unity residents Randolph and Vaune Gounder contend the school district improperly challenged the tax value of a home they bought in July for $585,000 as...

A new three-member board will begin hearing Westmoreland County property assessment appeals. The county commissioners on Thursday reappointed Barbara Moffe along with newcomers Camdon Porterfield and Dan Galbraith to the board that will conduct hearings to determine whether assessments of the county’s 191,000-plus parcels are accurate. The appeals board conducted...

Nonunion firms no longer can say they are being frozen out of securing high-dollar construction contracts with Westmoreland County. Republican county Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew on Thursday terminated a controversial agreement with local trade unions. They said the Project Labor Agreement with the Pittsburgh Regional Building and Construction...

Work will soon begin on a new office and garage facility to house the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County’s growing sewer operation. The authority this week awarded nearly $5.5 million in construction contracts for the project, to be built on its campus off Park and Pool roads in New Stanton....

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members on Wednesday approved taking over a small Fayette County sewer system, the first new acquisition the agency has finalized in more than a year. The deal will transfer the 574 customers of the Upper Tyrone Township Sewage Authority to the county utility and...

A man was paroled Wednesday after he was sentenced to serve 28 days in jail for his role in the killing of a dog last summer on railroad tracks in North Huntingdon. Anthony Keith Harper, 28, of Irwin pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to torture an animal...

Rahmael Holt simply said “no” when asked Wednesday whether he had anything to say before his death sentence was formally imposed. Holt, 31, of Harrison, Allegheny County, officially became the 133rd person on Pennsylvania’s death row when he was condemned to death by lethal injection for shooting and killing New...

The district judge’s office in Mt. Pleasant Township will be shuttered next month as part of plan to redistrict Westmoreland County’s remaining 16 local courts. The move comes on the heels of last week’s resignation of Senior District Judge Roger Eckels, who for three decades presided over the court, hearing...

A Youngwood man will await trial in jail on a charge he provided a fatal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin used by a woman whose body was found in a Greensburg apartment last summer. In court Monday, Westmoreland County prosecutors said that, while on bail and house arrest in January, Matthew...

The county spent nearly $24,000 to combat Legionella bacteria since late January, after it was discovered in the water system of Westmoreland Manor. Officials said Monday a private company was hired to flush the water systems at the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield with chlorine, while additional expenses included the...

A former Jeannette man who served a 15-month prison sentence for assaulting two deputy sheriffs was arrested again last week, this time on charges that he attacked a Youngwood woman in her home. State police said Jesse Hassinger, 38, attacked the woman when an argument over a pet cat turned...

Foul play is not suspected in the death of an Indiana County woman who was missing since Thursday. State police announced Saturday morning that the body of Lori Ann Lane, 55, was found inside a 2003 Honda Pilot that was overturned in a stream along Taylor Road in Armstrong Township,...