Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 61

A Westmoreland County judge will decide if a Derry Township woman’s 2020 death at the hands of a man who fired four shots into the wrong home was murder. Court documents filed Wednesday by the lawyer for Nathan Quidetto argued that Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger should dismiss murder...

A Sewickley man will remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges that he assaulted three people, including one who police said was hit in the face with a shovel. Jason Lee Bingaman, 50, has been in jail on $50,000 bond since his arrest in January. He is charged...

After a decade of duty, Rex, Westmoreland County’s explosive detection dog, is calling it quits. The 11-year-old Belgian Malinois that served as the first K9 officer with the county’s Park Police Department, was retired from service in February. The canine and his handler, Officer Bill Meyers of Hempfield, were honored...

A Cheswick man who turned 18 a month after he was charged last year with the attempted murder of three people during a shooting outside of a Greensburg apartment building contends he should be prosecuted as a juvenile. The lawyer for Jaron Malik Haten-McCoy filed court documents Tuesday that argue...

A Pittsburgh man told a Westmoreland County jury on Tuesday he was less than 5 feet away when he watched a man pull out a gun and fire multiple shots into the back of a friend who had started to run away down an Arnold alley nearly three years ago....

Testimony started Monday in the trial of a Rostraver man accused of repeated sexual assaults of a 7-year-old girl. Westmoreland County prosecutors contend Robert Taylor Parks IV, 24, had sexual contact with his accuser at least five times dating back to 2015. Parks was charged in December 2020 with two...

Despite a recent uptick in ridership, Westmoreland County Transit Authority will need to cut some commuter bus service to account for an ongoing driver shortage, officials said. Keeping and retaining drivers has been an issue for the authority since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and that shortage has left...

The lawyer for a Vandergrift man who won a $19 million verdict this month from a Westmoreland County jury has asked a judge to order a Washington Township couple found responsible for his injuries to pay another $3.8 million in delayed damages. The verdict, the largest ever awarded in Westmoreland...

For the past decade, state Rep. George Dunbar’s 56th District local office has operated in a building just south of Clay Pike, near the Circleville Volunteer Fire Hall in North Huntingdon. For a while last week it was unclear whether the veteran state lawmaker would be able keep his office...

A former Westmoreland County deputy sheriff pleaded guilty Friday to charges he bribed female inmates with tobacco products in return for sexual favors. Daniel Aaron Gradischek, 34, of Unity, was charged in late 2019 with five counts alleging that over a 10-year period he used his position as a deputy...

A former Westmoreland County deputy sheriff pleaded guilty Friday to charges he bribed female inmates with tobacco products in return for sexual favors. Daniel Aaron Gradischek, 34, of Unity, was charged in late 2019 with five criminal counts alleging that over a 10-year period he used his position as a...

Westmoreland County will use cash in an attempt bolster its roster of 911 dispatchers and call-takers. Commissioners have agreed to a $486,000 financial package to award raises to dozens of county employees in multiple departments and award bonuses to 911 staffers, as well as new hires. “This is a public...

A Westmoreland County judge this week rejected the appeal of a Washington County man serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of his father-in-law in Donegal Township. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani, in a 12-page opinion, ruled there was no evidence to support claims made by Michael Martin...

Westmoreland County has millions of dollars at the ready to help residents pay their back rent and bills, with much of that cash yet to be spent. The county has received another nearly $3.4 million from the state to bolster the ongoing rental assistance program authorized through federal coronavirus relief...

Jonathan Held, the former Westmoreland County sheriff once tried by state prosecutors in a public corruption case, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor theft charge. A judge sentenced him to serve six months on probation. Held, 48, formerly of Hempfield, lives in Cape Coral, Fla. As part of his plea...

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County has filed a lawsuit against more than two dozen chemical companies, accusing them of manufacturing toxic substances and contaminating the local water system. The six-count lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County seeks damages associated with chemicals that leached into the water supply but also for...

A Penn Township man will serve up to 10 years in prison for stealing a neighbor’s jewelry in 2019. Michael Joseph Lapaglia, 31, was convicted in November by a Westmoreland County jury of felony burglary and trespassing as well as misdemeanor counts of theft and receiving stolen property. According to...

It took five days and $300 in parking tickets before Westmoreland County reached an agreement for Greensburg parking enforcement officers to stop citing inmate transport vans for parking in metered spaces outside the downtown courthouse. “They are adding up,” Sheriff James Albert said Tuesday about the tickets being incurred by...

A Clairton man convicted of running a major drug trafficking operation in Westmoreland County has been granted a one month hiatus from prison. Lindsey R. Wright, 42, who was sentenced late last week to serve up to 10 years in prison, will be released to house arrest before his newly...

A Penn Township woman told a Westmoreland County judge on Monday that the two-year minimum sentence for the man who sexually assaulted her while her young child was in another room in her home wasn’t long enough. “A two-year sentence for what he has done is not justice. My life...

A suspended mental health therapist wants seven separate juries to hear evidence from 10 former patients who claim they were victims of sexual assaults, harassed, groped or subjected to other inappropriate behavior during counseling sessions over the last decade. Gregory P. Miscik, 60, of Latrobe was first charged in November...

It had been a month since the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh’s East End collapsed, and the memory was fresh in the mind of Westmoreland County Public Works Director Greg McCloskey as he gathered his bosses around a conference table to meet with an engineer. It was at that Feb....

A jury on Friday awarded $19 million in damages to a Vandergrift man left paralyzed from an accident in a friend’s swimming pool, in what is believed to be the largest verdict ever issued in Westmoreland County. Jurors found that Washington Township homeowners Robert and Laura O’Black were negligent and...

A Westmoreland County jury will begin deliberations Friday to determine if a Washington Township couple is responsible for injuries that left their son’s best friend paralyzed after he broke his neck in 2013 in their backyard swimming pool. Lawyers for Michael Fraser, 29, of Vandergrift contend Robert and Laura O’Black...

A Delmont woman was charged amid allegations that she threatened to hang the Westmoreland County judge who is overseeing her ongoing custody dispute. Detectives said Jennifer Gesuale, 42, posted a YouTube video on March 7 in which she is alleged to have called for the murder of Westmoreland County Common...