Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 110

Nearly 500 candidates are expected to appear on the May 21 primary ballots in Westmoreland County. Elections bureau officials on Wednesday made public the complete list of candidates seeking 173 elected offices this year. Republican and Democratic voters will nominate candidates for state and county judges, county commissioners and row...

Jolene Cummins said her husband was excited to finally spend Christmas Eve with his family. Having previously been on call for the holidays, Joseph Cummins had a new job and for the first time in years did not have to work. He prepared to head to church with his wife...

The lawyer for a Latrobe man told Westmoreland County jurors Tuesday his 19-year-old client never intended to be involved in a murder. Defense attorney Michael DeMatt conceded that Colin Gearhart was present but was not involved with the robbery and shooting that left a friend dead in front of his...

Opening statements and testimony will begin Wednesday in the third-degree murder trial of a New Stanton motorist charged with being under the influence of drugs when he hit and killed a pedestrian walking his dog on Christmas Eve 2016. Jurors were seated Tuesday in the case against Matthew Ramsay, 31,...

Embattled Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held and his former chief deputy filed campaign documents Tuesday to run for public office. Held, a Hempfield Republican, will seek a third term as the sheriff while state prosecutors prepare to retry him on public corruption charges. He is accused of forcing on-duty deputies...

Two men awaiting a retrial in connection with a shooting nearly two years ago in Monessen rejected plea bargains on Monday and said they want a jury to decide their fates. Joseph “Jo Jo” Heath and Rashawn Ford, both of Monessen, have disputed charges that they were involved in the...

Opening statements will begin Tuesday in the second-degree murder trial of a Latrobe man accused of participating in a plot to rob a Pittsburgh-area drug dealer. The plan went awry, according to investigators, and 20-year-old Daniel McNerny of Latrobe was shot and killed. A jury was seated on Monday to...

An Irwin man jailed last week along with two others in connection with a fatal overdose of a man in Greensburg will be released from jail as he awaits his trial. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani on Monday modified the bond that held Francesco Ziegler, 28, in...

A $12 million construction project to relocate water and sewer lines in Youngwood is expected to begin next year. Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County has approved spending more than $5.1 million to move sewer lines under Route 119 as part of a PennDOT project to repair and resurface the three-mile...

A Hempfield woman charged with disseminating a video that police said depicts another woman having sex with a 5-year-old boy can be released from prison, a judge ruled Friday. Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani ordered Amanda Smith to be released on nominal bond while she awaits trial next month, but...

Environmentalists on Friday demanded board members of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County halt deep well gas drilling at the agency’s Beaver Run Reservoir property in Washington and Bell townships. The plea came nearly two months after a well at the reservoir property malfunctioned when a drop in pressure at...

Westmoreland County’s pension fund lost more than $45 million in 2018 and for the first time in five years has been designated at a minimum distressed level. The account, which provides benefits to about 1,300 government retirees, has more than $415 million in assets after its value dipped by nearly...

The private company that manages Westmoreland Manor has hired a new administrator to oversee day-to-day operations at the county-owned nursing home. Premier Healthcare Resources, the Penn Township-based firm that was paid more than $586,000 last year to run the 408-bed facility in Hempfield, replaced John Austin, the nursing home’s manager...

A Unity woman pleaded guilty Thursday to shooting her boyfriend during a domestic dispute last year. Brandy Harr, 41, told a judge it was in her best interest to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of simple assault in connection to the March 9, 2018, shooting in her apartment that...

Lawyers for John Kunco, the former Harrison man who served nearly three decades behind bars for the rape of a New Kensington woman, wants a judge to dismiss the case. In court motions filed Thursday, lawyers contend missing evidence and the loss of testimony through the deaths of the alleged...

An Oklahoma Borough man will serve five years on probation and a year of house arrest for his role in what Westmoreland County prosecutors continue to maintain is the theft of more than $200,000 of natural gas. Jeffrey Zinchini, 60, avoided jail time as part of a sentence announced Thursday....

A New Florence man will serve three months on house arrest for using his girlfriend’s sweatpants to set fire in her apartment last year. William Teeter, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count of risking catastrophe in connection with a fire set in St. Clair Manor apartment during a...

Republican candidates for Westmoreland County commissioner, continuing a coordination effort in early campaigning, said they won’t accept donations from vendors awarded contracts for county work without any formalized competition. Four of the five declared candidates signed what they called a “taxpayer protection pledge” in which they promised to refuse money...

Susan Vosefski, a Democrat from Unity, is seeking her party’s nomination for Westmoreland County Register of Wills in the May primary election. Vosefski, 58, works as an office and estate administration coordinator at Williams Law Office in Greensburg. The register of wills office oversees marriage licenses, estate records and orphans...

Representatives from Westmoreland County’s 18 second-class townships will gather March 8 for their annual convention. The meeting, held at Stratigos Banquet Centre in North Huntingdon, will feature question-and-answer sessions with local state lawmakers and township solicitors as well as information from vendors, according to Donegal Township Supervisor Thomas Stull Jr.,...

A Hempfield doctor could be ordered to serve up to 40 years in prison when sentenced this year for prescribing drugs to a patient who died from an overdose in 2015. Dr. Edgar Peske, 80, this week entered a no contest plea to a charge of drug delivery resulting in...

Joe Pittman, chief of staff to former state Sen. Don White, announced he will be a candidate to complete the term of his former boss. White, a Republican from Indiana, served in the state Senate representing the 41st District since 2000 and retired at the end of February. His term...

A Latrobe man will serve up to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter for the August 2017 shooting death of his 15-year-old friend. Andrew Stephen Braddy, 18, told a Westmoreland County judge he was guilty of the charges but said nothing...

A Hempfield man charged in two separate criminal cases of rape and assault against the same woman will remain in jail until an unrelated drunken-driving case is resolved. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway on Monday rejected a defense bid to have Harold M. Franks released on nominal bail...

A Westmoreland County judge on Friday rejected the appeal of a Rostraver man serving a life prison term for the 2015 murder of his sister’s boyfriend. Billy Ray Boggs Jr., 52, has, for the last three years, sought to withdraw his guilty plea to a count of first-degree murder for...