Salem man accused of ethnic intimidation in phone calls

A Salem man was charged Thursday with ethnic intimidation after police said he used racial slurs during multiple phone calls to a South Greensburg man, according to court papers.

In addition to the felony count, Adam Joseph Amendola, 27, is charged with misdemeanors counts of making terroristic threats and harassment in the May incidents.

South Greensburg police said they were called May 11 by an Elm Street man who reported receiving 20 or more phone calls daily for the past six days. The caller directed racial slurs and expletives toward the man, threatening to hang him and kill his family, according to court papers.

The man recorded some of the phone calls when he engaged the caller, police said.

Investigators were led to Amendola on Sept. 2 through phone records of the number making the calls and he denied involvement, according to court papers. Patrolman Edward Grabb said he recognized Amendola’s voice as the one recorded by the victim during the threatening phone calls.

The victim told police he went to grade school with Amendola at Greensburg Salem, but they didn’t have any other connection, according to court papers.

A summons was sent to Amendola. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 3. He did not have an attorney listed in online court records.

Amendola pleaded guilty to harassment citations in five other instances between August 2017 and July 2020, according to online court records. An Oct. 1 preliminary hearing is set in Greensburg on a separate terroristic threats and harassment case.

He was sentenced Sept. 9 to six months of probation and 40 days home electronic monitoring on two drunken-driving charges, according to court records.