Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 85

A judge on Tuesday ruled that defense lawyers for a New Kensington man facing a potential death sentence for the death of a 2-year-old can hire a medical expert to evaluate and potentially refute prosecution evidence at his upcoming trial. Keith Dale Lilly Jr., 31, has been in the Westmoreland...

County commissioners throughout Pennsylvania are calling for a series of election reforms they contend will improve the balloting process across the state and clarify procedures that resulted in counting delays and litigation. According to a preliminary report released Thursday by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, officials recommend state lawmakers...

Nowhere else in Pennsylvania saw more Democratic voters switch their party allegiances to Republican than in Westmoreland County during the first week of January. From Jan. 4 through Jan. 11, there were 189 registered Democrats who became members of the GOP, according to figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State....

Security at Westmoreland County government facilities will be tightened as part of a $2.4 million project approved Thursday. Commissioners unanimously approved a contract with Dagostino Electronic Services of Homestead to install new systems that consolidate cameras and other security features at the courthouse complex in Greensburg, Westmoreland Manor, the county...

Most Westmoreland County employees won’t see additional pay this month for working during the covid-19 pandemic, but commissioners Thursday agreed to a bump in wages for workers from a private company providing care at the county-owned nursing home. The pandemic pay was included in a contract extension with Dedicated Nursing...

An Allegheny County man pleaded guilty Wednesday to repeatedly raping a teenage girl in 2019. Police said that starting in June 2019, Daniel E. Powell, 37, of North Versailles forcibly raped a 17-year-old girl and continued the sexual assaults through September. According to court records, the victim in February told...

Westmoreland County elections officials Wednesday morning started counting more than two dozen provisional ballots cast in November but just recently discovered by staff during routine inspections of voting equipment. Elections bureau staffers, serving as appointed members of a reconstituted provisional board, reviewed and qualified 20 ballots cast in North Huntingdon...

Westmoreland County’s Democratic Committee called on two local Republican congressmen to resign in response to their votes last week objecting to Pennsylvania’s presidential election results following the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol. Committee chairwoman Tara Yokopenic said in a statement released late Monday that Reps. Guy Reschenthaler and John...

A special election to fill the vacancy in the state House 59th District left by the sudden death of Rep. Mike Reese will be conducted May 18. Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, announced Tuesday the special election will be held along with the regularly scheduled primary the same day....

The lawyer for a Hyde Park man accused of the fatal beating of his estranged wife told a Westmoreland County judge on Monday there is insufficient evidence to support murder charges. Jeffrey Fondrk, 58, was charged with criminal homicide days after his wife, Patricia, was beaten to death in July...

A Greensburg man pleaded guilty Monday to providing the drugs that killed his longtime girlfriend at her Hempfield home in 2019. Stephanie Rae Johnson, 34, died March 19, 2019, after consuming fentanyl-laced heroin police said she got from her boyfriend, Christopher Patrick Showalter. Showalter pleaded guilty to a felony count...

Westmoreland County is seeking candidates to fill a deputy director’s position for the elections bureau ahead of the 2021 campaign season to help ease the burden on an office that was understaffed and pushed to its limits last fall. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 20. “We need to be...

A Delmont man was sentenced Friday to serve nearly two years in jail for possession of child pornography. Michael Goodis, 53, was convicted by a Westmoreland County jury in October of 32 felony counts in connection with at least 30 different pornographic images found stored on his computer equipment depicting...

As the coronavirus continues to spread among inmates at the Westmoreland County Prison, officials said Thursday there are signs that infections have started to slow at the Hempfield facility. Interim Warden George Lowther said there are 77 inmates infected, with new cases almost daily. But the overall number of new...

A Westmoreland County prosecutor told a judge Wednesday he could not recommend withdrawing a felony vehicular homicide charge against a Penn Township man. Assistant District Attorney Allen Powanda said he learned minutes before Chad Gregorini was to plead guilty to lesser charges that the victim’s three adult children objected to...

A Hempfield woman tightly clutched her young daughter and sobbed as she stood before a Westmoreland County judge to admit she provided the drugs that killed a Greensburg man. Hollie Ann Schreiber, 40, could face up to 40 years in prison when she is sentenced. On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty...

Former Westmoreland County Prison Warden John Walton could earn nearly $51,000 this year to testify in pending lawsuits and other court hearings under a contract approved by the county’s salary board. Walton resigned in October after serving 18 years as the jail’s top administrator. Commissioners Doug Chew and Gina Cerilli...

Westmoreland County elections officials disclosed Monday that 21 uncounted provisional ballots submitted at a North Huntingdon voting precinct on Election Day were discovered last week among computer equipment used at the polls in November. Elections bureau staffers found the unopened ballots during a routine inspection of voting machines stored at...

Most services at the Westmoreland County Courthouse will continue to operate by appointment as coronavirus cases continue to surge. County commissioners announced Monday that modified operations, originally set to expire earlier today, will remain in place indefinitely. “The cases aren’t slowing down,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli. She returned to the...

New Kensington lawyer Nicole Ziccarelli will ask the Republican-controlled state Senate to reject state certification and overturn the re-election of incumbent Democrat Jim Brewster in the 45th District. The district includes parts of Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, and that fact is central to the disputed election results. According to official,...

State Rep. Mike Reese, elected in November to his seventh term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, died Saturday at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg following an apparent brain aneurysm. Reese, 42, of Mt. Pleasant Township, was a 12-year House veteran representing Westmoreland and Somerset county residents in the...

Westmoreland County officials said this week no decisions have been reached about how it will handle bills recently received from an Ohio direct mailing company that claimed mechanical issues caused two delays in sending ballots out to voters this fall. The county received two invoices earlier this month totaling more...

Westmoreland County’s Five Star Trail will be around for at least another quarter century. County commissioners, acting as members of the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp., last week approved the renewal of the 25-year lease with the Regional Trails Commission and the private freight railroad that operates along the tracks...

More than $615,000 in covid relief grants were handed out Tuesday to local volunteer fire departments and emergency medical service units as Westmoreland County exhausted its share of federal stimulus money to help struggling businesses, nonprofits and municipalities amid the ongoing pandemic. Commissioners awarded 24 volunteer fire departments and 10...

Westmoreland County commissioners on Tuesday rescinded a nearly $5,000 grant awarded last week to a Salem gym after it refused to accept a provision that requires recipients to pledge to adhere to state covid guidelines. Officials said representatives of Matshark Fitness, which operates as Wallace Training Systems, declined to sign...