Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 132

Westmoreland County’s drug court participants will receive a kit with a life-saving dose of naloxone as part of a grant received Monday. Tim Phillips, executive director of the county’s Drug Overdose Task Force, said the county received 65 doses of the drug as part of program from the pharmaceutical company...

A Jeannette man will serve up to nearly two years in jail for assaulting another man on the porch of his home last spring. Marlon C. “Star” Williams, 40, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment for the stabbing. Police said Williams used a three-inch knife...

Westmoreland County Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton has announced she will seek a second term in office. Hamilton, 42, a Republican from Hempfield, was first elected in 2015 to run the courthouse office that oversees estate records, orphans court and marriage licenses. She served one year as the office’s...

Westmoreland County Republicans expect the path to reclaim a majority on the board of commissioners will be more difficult this year with the impending retirement of popular incumbent Charles Anderson. Anderson announced last week he would not seek another term in office, leaving the local GOP with a huge hole...

A Hempfield woman said Friday she wants to run the courthouse office where she has worked for the last 15 years. Katie Pecarchik, 50, announced she will be a candidate for Register of Wills, the office that oversees estates, wills, adoptions records and marriage licenses. She serves as a deputy...

Westmoreland County will seek a $30,000 state grant to help pay for the drug court program. Commissioners announced Thursday they will apply for the funds from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. “It will help out and reimburse our general fund for the program,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli said. The grant...

A Latrobe man will serve up to three years in prison for assaulting security guards in the behavioral health unit of Excela Heath Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. Christopher Daykon, 33, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of aggravated assault in connection with two incidents in September 2017. Police said Daykon, a...

It took a Westmoreland County jury just one hour Thursday afternoon to convict a Latrobe man of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his friend. The jury of eight men and four women found Zachary McGrath guilty in the Jan. 20, 2016, shooting death of Daniel McNerny in front...

A Hempfield man accused in a national magazine article of making racially insensitive statements on social media announced Thursday he will seek a position on the Westmoreland County board of commissioners. John Ventre, 61, a Republican, said his candidacy will focus on improving the county’s finances and criticized the current...

Sean Kertes, chief of staff to Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson, said Wednesday he wants his boss’ job. Kertes, 32, of Greensburg formally announced he will be a candidate for county commissioner, seeking to replace Anderson who will retire at year’s end after more than 11 years in office. “Having...

A Latrobe man, while on the run for more than a day after a deadly shooting and robbery two years ago, repeatedly confessed to friends that he fired the fatal shots, witnesses testified Wednesday during the second day of Zachary McGrath’s murder trial. A series of friends testified that McGrath...

Water rates for Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will remain steady for the first time in four years. Authority board members on Wednesday unanimously approved a new $110 million budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year, which will start in April, retains the current water rate structure for the utility’s 120,000...

Westmoreland County will open a visitor center next month as part of a renewed push to promote tourism. On Thursday, county commissioners are expected to approve an $81,000 contract with the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau to operate the facility in a plaza on Route 119, north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike...

Confronted by a gun-wielding masked man, Daniel McNerny took it upon himself to put a stop to what appeared to be an armed robbery in front of a Latrobe home nearly two years ago, an eyewitness testified Tuesday. McNerny, who had been visiting friends when he was alerted to the...

The Tribune-Review on Tuesday filed an appeal of a judge’s order delaying the public release of the names of jurors who served in last month’s public corruption trial of Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held. Senior Common Pleas Judge Timothy Creany in late December ruled the names will remain private until...

Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson announced Tuesday he will retire at year’s end and will not run for re-election this year. Anderson, a Hempfield Republican, was first appointed to commissioner in 2008 and served a four-year stint as board chairman until the GOP lost its majority in 2015. “I’ve been...

Opening statements will begin Tuesday morning in the first-degree murder trial of a Latrobe man police said fired two shots on a city street, killing a friend who attempted to intervene in an armed robbery of a drug dealer. The prosecution contends Zachary McGrath, 23, concealed his identity when he...

A retired Franklin Regional school teacher is the newest member of the Norwin School Board. Westmoreland County’s nine Common Pleas Court judges Monday selected William Essay, 57, of North Huntingdon, to complete the last year of a term left vacant by the resignation of board member Shawn Petrisko in August....

Judge Anthony Marsili’s career may have started out with him selling ties and shirts at a now-defunct Greensburg department store. But decades later, it’s a black robe that has defined his life’s work. Marsili, 67, of New Kensington, officially retired Sunday after serving 19 years as a common pleas judge...

The man who oversees the computer systems at the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County announced Friday he will run for county commissioner. Paul Kosko, 57, a Republican from Hempfield, told about a dozen supporters who gathered in front of the courthouse he wants to serve as a bipartisan elected official...

A New Stanton teenager could plead guilty but mentally ill this year for killing his mother and younger brother, his lawyer said. Jacob Remaley, 16, is considering a resolution to his murder case that would allow him to serve a portion of his sentence in a mental health treatment facility...

Westmoreland County’s chief public defender announced Thursday he will be a candidate for one of two judicial vacancies this year on the Common Pleas Court. Republican Wayne McGrew, 50, of Sewickley Township, is making his first run for judge. “Court appearances can be some of the most stressful times in...

The Hempfield bicyclist who served nearly two years behind bars for obstructing traffic on county roadways could roll his way back to jail soon. Westmoreland County prosecutors contend David Smith, 59, violated terms of his probation by riding his bicycle on county roads in late October. “I don’t know what...

A Greensburg woman will serve up to 20 years in prison for selling sexual encounters with a 3-year-old girl. Rebecca Shadle was sentenced Thursday after she pleaded guilty in September to trafficking of a minor for sexual purposes, child endangerment, aggravated indecent assault and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Shadle allowed men...

A homeless couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges related to a meth lab police said they found at a Vandergrift house in October. Tia Charmagne Klazon, 32, of Arnold, and Kiel Thomas Freeman, 32, of Vandergrift, were each sentenced to serve six to 23 months in jail and two years...