Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 82
Westmoreland commissioners restructure election bureau; director’s job in limboVideo
Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday overhauled the county election bureau to add a layer of management, increased pay for staff and, for the first time, acknowledged a potential change in leadership of the department. The move comes a month after numerous operational and administrative issues plagued the bureau the days before...
Water quality testing to continue at Beaver Run Reservoir in Bell Township
Water quality tests at the reservoir that supplies drinking water to about half of all Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers will continue for the next year. Authority board members this week approved a new contract with Indiana University of Pennsylvania to collect samples and analyze the water at Beaver...
Hempfield man sentenced to 2 years in prison for 2019 knife attack
A Hempfield man was sentenced to serve at least two years in prison for an attack that left his neighbor bloodied and in a coma for days following a vicious attack two years ago. Vincente Alejo Andres V, 36, pleaded guilty last summer to aggravated and simple assault charges. On...
Bolivar man pleads guilty to role in failed drug smuggling plot
A Bolivar man will serve up to four years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to his role in a failed plot to smuggle drugs into the county jail and for threatening a witness. David Lee McGinnis, 28, was among six people — including his mother — charged in connection...
Commissioners remain silent on suspended Westmoreland election bureau director
Westmoreland County’s public works director continued in his interim role as head of the election bureau on Tuesday as the commissioners remained silent about the status of the department’s suspended top official. The county commissioners also serve as the county’s election board. They met as such late Tuesday to approve...
Jeannette man sentenced to probation for dragging off-duty cop down his own driveway
A Jeannette man will serve up to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he used his pickup truck to drag an off-duty Penn Township police officer down his own driveway and into a front yard three years ago. William Albert Brummett, 34, pleaded guilty...
Westmoreland Housing Authority leverages properties to pay for new construction, renovations
Westmoreland County Housing Authority officials said Tuesday the agency secured more than $17 million in low-interest loans and will seek to borrow another $4.5 million to pay for new construction projects and renovation of existing properties. Director Michael Washowich said the low-income housing agency used four of its larger properties...
Westmoreland County launches clean energy program for property development
Westmoreland County commissioners have created a program that officials said will help private businesses and industrial building owners borrow money to pay for energy conservation programs. The Countywide Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, launched by the state in 2018, allows the county to act as a middle man for private...
Half-century and counting for Westmoreland County’s longest tenured employeeVideo
Barb Jollie is in a class by herself. Working as a dependency hearing officer for Westmoreland County’s family court division, Jollie has been the one constant in the government over the past half-century. She was honored this week by commissioners for reaching a milestone, 50 years of employment with the...
Greensburg man guilty of 1st-degree murder in Vandergrift woman’s deathVideo
The Greensburg man prosecutors said beat a Vandergrift woman with a hammer, choked her to death and burned her body in a remote area near Keystone State Park in early 2017 was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder. After 13 hours of deliberations over two days, a Westmoreland County jury returned...
Westmoreland commissioner expresses confidence in election office as director’s suspension continues
The Westmoreland County commissioners said Thursday the staff issues that have plagued the county election bureau this week has not impacted the department’s ability to operate. The commissioners following their June public meeting did not acknowledge the paid suspension of Election Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani but indicated they are working...
Jury deliberations to continue in Greensburg man’s murder trial
A jury will resume deliberations Thursday morning in the trial of a Greensburg man charged with the murder of a Vandergrift woman whose charred remains were found at a secluded Derry Township campsite four years ago. Jurors deliberated about four hours Wednesday and did not reach a verdict in the...
Rookie Westmoreland County election director suspended with pay
The Westmoreland County commissioners suspended with pay the woman they hired less than a year ago to run the county election bureau. Records obtained Wednesday by the Tribune-Review indicate bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani was suspended Tuesday and will continue to be off the job through Friday. No reason was given...
Walter Cable testifies he had no role in Vandergrift woman’s murder
Walter Cable told a Westmoreland County jury Tuesday he and another man dropped Ronny Cable off about a block from her front door about midnight Feb. 17, 2017, and never heard from her again. Cable, 28, of Greensburg testified during the sixth day of his murder trial that he had...
Bathroom hidden camera earns North Huntingdon man jail term
A North Huntingdon man will serve up to 23 months in jail for recording video of female co-workers in the bathroom of a business where they worked and eavesdropping on conversations another had with a supervisor. Nicholas Traill, 35, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of burglary, invasion of privacy, possession...
Police say video refutes Greensburg man’s alibi in woman’s murder
The man prosecutors contend killed a Vandergrift woman and burned her remains four years ago claimed he was at home and asleep when she died, a detective testified Monday. Westmoreland County Detective Ray Dupilka said Walter Cable admitted he was with 34-year-old Ronny Cable the night she disappeared but that...
Computer glitch excludes Westmoreland write-in winners; other results certified
Results from 14 Westmoreland County primaries were amended Monday to include additional winners after a weekend review of write-in votes identified discrepancies in how final totals were reported. “Out of an abundance of caution, we wanted to review them,” said Election Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani. Election officials said no additional...
Hot housing market a boon for sellers in Westmoreland, Pittsburgh region
Record-low inventories of homes for sale in Western Pennsylvania have resulted in historically high sale prices as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the local housing market. Real estate experts said the seller’s market for existing homes in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties is likely to continue into next year, a...
Scottdale man sentenced to prison for role in robbery, shooting of Derry drug dealer
A Scottdale man was sentenced Friday to serve up to five years in prison for his role in the shooting and robbery of a Derry drug dealer last year. Brandon Eugene “Lil-Drizzy” Thomas, pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy. Westmoreland County prosecutors agreed to dismiss attempted homicide,...
Southmoreland school official challenges primary results, claims county ballot error
Editor’s note: This story was amended on June 7, 2021, to correct the name of Southmoreland school board candidate Candice Raymond. A Southmoreland School Board member on Friday challenged the results of last month’s primary, claiming the Westmoreland County Election Bureau failed to include an open two-year seat on the...
Forensic anthropologist says Vandergrift woman’s remains burned for up to 10 hours
A forensic anthropologist testified Friday the body of a Vandergrift woman discovered in remote Derry Township in 2017 was likely burned in a fire for up to 10 hours. Dennis Dirkmaat, a professor at Mercyhurst University in Erie, told a Westmoreland County jury hundreds of small bone fragments along with...
Recovery trumps jail for former Greensburg man in fatal overdose caseVideo
An Indiana County man’s recovery from drug addiction won praise from a Westmoreland judge who sentenced him Friday to serve seven years on probation for his role in his girlfriend’s overdose death in her Greensburg apartment two years ago. In rejecting a recommended sentence of up to 13 years in...
Scalp, bone fragments among evidence presented in Greensburg man’s homicide trial
Investigators found what appeared to be part of a human scalp, bone fragments, charred jewelry and clothing in a pile of ash at a secluded Derry Township camp site identified by a witness as the location where Ronny Cable was killed and her remains burned in February 2017, police detectives...
Westmoreland primary results receive preliminary certification
Westmoreland County’s Elections Board on Wednesday voted to pre-certify results of the 2021 primary. That vote opens a five-day window to challenge in court the results in which Republicans and Democrats were nominated to run for county row office jobs as well as magisterial district judge positions, seats on municipal...
Co-defendant says he watched Vandergrift woman’s murder and helped burn her remains
An Export man told a Westmoreland County jury Wednesday that, just a day after Ronny Cable said she had feelings for him, he watched another man beat her over the head with a hammer and choke her to death. He said he then spent the next 12 hours helping to...
