Parks woman to serve house arrest, probation for assault on Vandergrift police

A Parks Township woman was sentenced to probation and house arrest on Thursday in connection with assaults on two Vandergrift police officers in 2019.

Candy Lee Yockey, 43, formerly of Plum, pleaded guilty in July to two charges of aggravated assault for an incident in Vandergrift three years ago in which she hit one police officer and kicked another after they drove her to her boyfriend’s home following an incident earlier that day that resulted her being briefly taken into custody.

According to court records, police found Yockey with a bloody mouth after she and another woman had been fighting. A witnesses told police Yockey appeared drunk. She was taken to the Vandergrift police station, where officials said she urinated on the floor of a holding cell and asked to be taken to her boyfriend’s home in Parks Township.

Once there, Yockey refused to go inside and claimed she wanted to be returned to state prison where she had previously served a two-to-six year sentence for a sex offense before she was released in 2006, police said.

Yockey served an additional three years in prison for failing to register as a convicted sex offender and remained behind bars until January 2014, according to her criminal record.

“What can I do to go to jail tonight,” Yockey asked police during the latest incident before she hit one officer in the arm and kicked another in the groin, according to court records.

Assistant District Attorney Amanda Rubin told the judge on Thursday that, because of Yockey’s prior criminal record, she faced a standard range sentence of up to two years in prison for assaults against Vandergrift police. Neither officer was injured in the assault, Rubin said.

Westmoreland County Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio accepted a defense request for a sentence that included no additional jail time to enable her to continue with ongoing mental health treatment. Yockey was ordered to serve three years on probation, including one year on house arrest.

“There is plenty of time to put you in state prison if you violate (terms of probation),” the judge said.