Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 62

Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert confirmed Tuesday he assigned eight deputies to work at last week’s political rally featuring former President Trump despite objections from county leaders. Albert said that in the hours leading up to Friday’s rally at the county fairgrounds in Mt. Pleasant Township, he determined liability concerns...

Former NFL quarterback and Jeannette High School football star Terrelle Pryor pleaded guilty Monday to criminal mischief in connection with a fall 2021 domestic incident in Murrysville. He was accused of hitting and shoving a woman before tossing a deck chair and throwing pumpkins at her car outside a home...

For the first time in more than a decade, state Rep. George Dunbar is facing a primary challenge to retain his 56th District seat — this time from a political newcomer who contends the incumbent’s Republican credentials are insufficient. “I believe he is more of an establishment Republican,” said challenger...

Avonmore Borough’s former secretary pleaded guilty Friday to the theft of more than $54,000 in taxpayer funds. Rebecca E. Steele, 46, worked for more than a decade as the secretary for the tiny Kiski Valley town when an audit in 2019 revealed large amounts of money had disappeared from borough...

A developer for a formerly blighted property in downtown Scottdale is wanted, Westmoreland redevelopment officials said. Two parcels at the intersection of Market Street and South Broadway that served as the home of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Scottdale for two decades are ready for a new owner to...

Britnee Clark stood in front a Westmoreland County judge Thursday and proudly said she turned her life around since she was charged nearly three years ago with selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a Greensburg woman who died from an overdose. Clark, 41, of Avalon, Allegheny County, proclaimed that she completed drug...

An Arona man who described himself as a “disgusting monster” was ordered Thursday to serve up to 40 years in prison for raping a child. Michael Andrew Wiser, 35, told a Westmoreland County judge that as a former child victim of sexual assault he should have known better and was...

A Unity woman will be released from jail Thursday morning to await trials on charges that she assaulted a hospital nurse and, in a separate case, allegations she intentionally rammed a Latrobe high school student’s vehicle in 2019. Susan Barkley, 43, has been in jail without bond since her arrest...

Westmoreland County Housing Authority officials are disputing residents’ allegations of poor living conditions at Jeannette Manor. A handful of residents, accompanied by county Commissioners Doug Chew and Gina Cerilli Thrasher, attended the housing agency’s monthly business meeting this week to air ongoing complaints about a reported bedbug infestation, the presence...

An East Huntingdon woman is awaiting sentencing after she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree murder for the 2020 shooting death of her boyfriend. Police said Meghan J. West, 31, fired at least three shots into a closed door in an argument in the late evening of Sept....

Westmoreland Fair officials were told to expect as many as 20,000 people to descend upon the 170-acre facility in Mt. Pleasant Township on Friday for a rally featuring former President Donald Trump. It will be Trump’s first return to Westmoreland County since campaigning here in the lead up to the...

Muhammad Ali Nasir was 16 when Pittsburgh police charged him with adult crimes, leading initially to him being held in jail after a magistrate set bail bonds that totaled $100,000. Last week, the Homewood man told members of the Pennsylvania state House Democratic Policy Committee he ultimately was found not...

A Mt. Pleasant man told a judge Friday he posted nude pictures of a former girlfriend to the internet because she and her friends bullied him years earlier while in high school. Frank Sebek II, 25, was ordered to serve three years on probation as part of a plea deal...

The lawyer for a man awaiting trial for attempted murder told a judge his client acted in self defense when he fired one shot during a melee outside Rialto Cafe in Greensburg. Defense attorney T. Brent McCune said 23-year-old Evan Curley of Greensburg was acting to protect himself as bullets...

A Unity man was convicted Tuesday of the rape of one child and sexual assault of another. Following a four-day trial, a Westmoreland County jury found Steven M. Cope Jr. guilty of 10 counts including rape of a child and multiple charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault...

A veteran Westmoreland County deputy sheriff was suspended with pay on Monday after he was charged with crimes following an incident last week in another state. Police in Louisville, Ky., charged Samuel D. Pilato, 59, of Hempfield with public intoxication and disorderly conduct in connection with a incident outside of...

Republican commissioners in Westmoreland County said it is money, not politics, that’s behind a decision to eliminate regional drop boxes for mail-in ballots in next month’s primary election. Commissioners Doug Chew and Sean Kertes voted Monday to install one drop box at the lower park Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to the...

A Vandergrift woman pleaded guilty Monday to third-degree murder, putting an end to her homicide trial during which prosecutors claimed she intentionally fired three shots, killing her cousin in 2018. Ashley Marie Croft, 38, will serve a 15- to 30-year prison sentence under terms of the plea deal. Croft did...

Westmoreland County Transit Authority board members this week awarded more than $7.4 million in contracts to build a new bus storage facility in Hempfield. Officials said the price tag for the project came in more than $3 million below estimates. “We were planning for a higher number,” said Authority Executive...

Westmoreland County commissioners are expected to scale back the use of regional drop boxes for mail-in ballots in next month’s primary election. A special meeting of the county’s Election Board is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday when commissioners will vote on a proposal to place just one drop box at...

Prosecutors said a Greensburg man faces up to 372 years in prison after he was convicted Friday of the rape of a 5-year-old child and recording videos he took of a woman engaged in sex acts with the boy. Westmoreland County jurors deliberated just more than two hours before returning...

Jurors on Friday found an Allegheny Township man guilty of four rapes and the sexual assaults of two other woman in crimes prosecutors said dated back to the early 2000s. Eric Wright, 50, could receive up to 100 years in prison for the rape offenses, according to Westmoreland County District...

The lawyer for a Vandergrift woman told a Westmoreland County jury Thursday that marijuana, combined with medications she takes for ongoing mental health issues, left her unable to form an intent to kill her cousin nearly four years ago. “She was suffering from an altered state of consciousnesses,” defense attorney...

The Allegheny Township man who prosecutors say raped and sexually assaulted six women dating back to the early 2000s told a Westmoreland County jury Thursday he is not guilty of the allegations. Eric Wright, 50, testified during the third day of his trial . He denied having any improper sexual...

Testimony in the murder trial of a Vandergrift woman accused in the 2018 shooting death of her cousin is expected to begin Thursday morning. A jury was seated Wednesday in Westmoreland County to hear evidence in the case against Ashley Croft. Prosecutors claim Croft, 38, shot and killed her 31-year-old...