Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 129
Youngwood water, sewer line work to begin in 2020
A $12 million construction project to relocate water and sewer lines in Youngwood is expected to begin next year. Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County has approved spending more than $5.1 million to move sewer lines under Route 119 as part of a PennDOT project to repair and resurface the three-mile...
Judge: Hempfield woman accused of sharing child pornography can be released from jail
A Hempfield woman charged with disseminating a video that police said depicts another woman having sex with a 5-year-old boy can be released from prison, a judge ruled Friday. Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani ordered Amanda Smith to be released on nominal bond while she awaits trial next month, but...
Residents want gas drilling to stop at Beaver Run Reservoir
Environmentalists on Friday demanded board members of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County halt deep well gas drilling at the agency’s Beaver Run Reservoir property in Washington and Bell townships. The plea came nearly two months after a well at the reservoir property malfunctioned when a drop in pressure at...
Westmoreland pension fund reported in good shape
Westmoreland County’s pension fund lost more than $45 million in 2018 and for the first time in five years has been designated at a minimum distressed level. The account, which provides benefits to about 1,300 government retirees, has more than $415 million in assets after its value dipped by nearly...
Westmoreland Manor administrator out, replacement named
The private company that manages Westmoreland Manor has hired a new administrator to oversee day-to-day operations at the county-owned nursing home. Premier Healthcare Resources, the Penn Township-based firm that was paid more than $586,000 last year to run the 408-bed facility in Hempfield, replaced John Austin, the nursing home’s manager...
Unity woman gets probation for boyfriend’s shooting
A Unity woman pleaded guilty Thursday to shooting her boyfriend during a domestic dispute last year. Brandy Harr, 41, told a judge it was in her best interest to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of simple assault in connection to the March 9, 2018, shooting in her apartment that...
Lawyers want 1990 New Kensington rape case against John Kunco dismissed
Lawyers for John Kunco, the former Harrison man who served nearly three decades behind bars for the rape of a New Kensington woman, wants a judge to dismiss the case. In court motions filed Thursday, lawyers contend missing evidence and the loss of testimony through the deaths of the alleged...
Oklahoma Borough man gets house arrest for stealing natural gas; how much still debated
An Oklahoma Borough man will serve five years on probation and a year of house arrest for his role in what Westmoreland County prosecutors continue to maintain is the theft of more than $200,000 of natural gas. Jeffrey Zinchini, 60, avoided jail time as part of a sentence announced Thursday....
New Florence man gets house arrest for setting fire in apartment building
A New Florence man will serve three months on house arrest for using his girlfriend’s sweatpants to set fire in her apartment last year. William Teeter, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count of risking catastrophe in connection with a fire set in St. Clair Manor apartment during a...
GOP candidates for Westmoreland commissioner refuse donations tied to no-contract bids
Republican candidates for Westmoreland County commissioner, continuing a coordination effort in early campaigning, said they won’t accept donations from vendors awarded contracts for county work without any formalized competition. Four of the five declared candidates signed what they called a “taxpayer protection pledge” in which they promised to refuse money...
Democrat announces candidacy for Westmoreland County Register of Wills
Susan Vosefski, a Democrat from Unity, is seeking her party’s nomination for Westmoreland County Register of Wills in the May primary election. Vosefski, 58, works as an office and estate administration coordinator at Williams Law Office in Greensburg. The register of wills office oversees marriage licenses, estate records and orphans...
Officials from Westmoreland County townships to hold annual convention
Representatives from Westmoreland County’s 18 second-class townships will gather March 8 for their annual convention. The meeting, held at Stratigos Banquet Centre in North Huntingdon, will feature question-and-answer sessions with local state lawmakers and township solicitors as well as information from vendors, according to Donegal Township Supervisor Thomas Stull Jr.,...
Hempfield doctor enters no contest plea in overdose death case
A Hempfield doctor could be ordered to serve up to 40 years in prison when sentenced this year for prescribing drugs to a patient who died from an overdose in 2015. Dr. Edgar Peske, 80, this week entered a no contest plea to a charge of drug delivery resulting in...
Chief of staff to seek GOP nomination for former state Sen. Don White’s seat
Joe Pittman, chief of staff to former state Sen. Don White, announced he will be a candidate to complete the term of his former boss. White, a Republican from Indiana, served in the state Senate representing the 41st District since 2000 and retired at the end of February. His term...
Latrobe man sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for 2017 shooting death
A Latrobe man will serve up to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter for the August 2017 shooting death of his 15-year-old friend. Andrew Stephen Braddy, 18, told a Westmoreland County judge he was guilty of the charges but said nothing...
Judge rejects bid to have Hempfield man released from prison pending jury trial
A Hempfield man charged in two separate criminal cases of rape and assault against the same woman will remain in jail until an unrelated drunken-driving case is resolved. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway on Monday rejected a defense bid to have Harold M. Franks released on nominal bail...
Rostraver man loses 3rd appeal of life sentence for murder
A Westmoreland County judge on Friday rejected the appeal of a Rostraver man serving a life prison term for the 2015 murder of his sister’s boyfriend. Billy Ray Boggs Jr., 52, has, for the last three years, sought to withdraw his guilty plea to a count of first-degree murder for...
ATF still investigating Jeannette fatal fire evidence; trial date to be set later
Investigators continue to analyze evidence collected at the scene of a 2018 Jeannette fire in which an elderly woman died. Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro said Friday in a court hearing for the man accused of setting the April 9 blaze that evidence collected at the scene is still being...
Man rejects plea deal in East Huntingdon pedestrian fatality case
A New Stanton motorist prosecutors contend was under the influence of drugs when he struck and killed a pedestrian on Christmas Eve 2016 in East Huntingdon rejected a plea deal on Friday that would have required him to serve up to 40 years in prison. Matthew Ramsay, 31, is charged...
Death penalty upheld for ‘Greensburg Six’ roommate Melvin Knight
A Westmoreland County judge has upheld the death penalty imposed against one of the six Greensburg roommates convicted in the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally disabled woman. Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway ruled evidence presented in a sentencing trial last November was sufficient to support a jury finding...
Vandergrift man gets up to 10 years in prison for raping 9-year-old boy
A Vandergrift man will serve up to 10 years in prison for raping a child. Brian Redmond, 33, pleaded guilty Friday in Westmoreland County to charges of rape and two other counts in connection with sexual assaults prosecutors said occurred in late 2016 and early 2017. Police also charged Redmond...
State appeals court upholds verdict in 2017 Excela stent cases; several others still pending in court system
A state appellate court affirmed a 2017 Westmoreland County jury verdict that cleared a doctor and Excela Health of wrongdoing for implanting cardiac stents into a patient who claimed they were unnecessary. The appeal involved a lawsuit filed by a North Huntingdon man who claimed five of the seven stents...
Jeannette woman rescinds murder plea, will head to trial
A Jeannette woman accused of violently beating her boyfriend to death on Thursday withdrew her guilty plea to third-degree murder. Crystal Belle, 39, pleaded guilty in September for the June 11, 2016, beating death of 19-year-old Khalil Parker, of Brentwood, Allegheny County, in her South Seventh Street home. The deal...
Trial for Rahmael Holt, charged with killing Officer Brian Shaw, postponed until August
The capital murder trial of a Harrison man charged with the November 2017 shooting death of a New Kensington police officer has been postponed until August. The attorney for Rahmael Sal Holt, 30, said in court Wednesday that he needed more time to prepare for trial, which had been scheduled...
Prosecutors want John Kunco’s attorneys to turn over evidence in rape retrial
Westmoreland County prosecutors want defense lawyers for a former Harrison man accused of a brutal rape in New Kensington nearly three decades ago to turn over evidence that could be used during a retrial. Assistant District Attorneys Barbara Jollie and James Hopson filed court documents Wednesday seeking reports and mental...
