Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 59
Mt. Pleasant man on trial for rape of child
Testimony started Tuesday in the trial of a Mt. Pleasant man charged with the rape of a teenager and sexual assault of another child. Westmoreland County prosecutors claim Kenneth R. Daniels II, 42, had improper sexual contact with two females from 2014 to 2017. Daniels was charged with 11 counts,...
Westmoreland County inks $20.9M contract for prison inmate medical care
Westmoreland County will pay nearly double for medical care of jail inmates under a new five-year contract approved by commissioners. The $20.9 million contract with PrimeCare Medical Inc. of Harrisburg will include increased services that focus on mental health treatment and support for inmates at the Hempfield lockup. Commissioners selected...
Judge rejects plea deals for Monessen men, citing insufficient prison time
A judge on Monday rejected guilty pleas for two Monessen men charged separately in unrelated cases involving allegations of illegal gun possession and assaults against police officers. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani told prosecutors that both men had lengthy criminal records involving similar offenses and the proposed...
Water outage begins Tuesday for MAWC customers in Murrysville, Penn Township, Jeannette
Water service will be disrupted for nearly 300 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers on Tuesday as work crews replace two inoperable valves on a major transmission line from Murrysville to Jeannette. Work is expected to begin shortly after 3 a.m. on July 19 and take about 24 hours to...
Irwin man gets up to 20 years in prison for stabbing
An Irwin man was ordered Monday to serve up to 20 years in prison for stabbing a man following a bar fight. Joshua James Robison, 26, pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated assault and one count each of possession of an instrument of crime and simple assault in connection...
Games, crafts and sundaes highlight Family Fun Day Sundae event at Lynch Field
Quinn Ingram grasped a plastic ball and surveyed the table before her to find the perfect hat to wear. After she watched her father, Garrett, model a green dinosaur head covering, it was 2-year-old Quinn’s turn to don the headgear. The Ingrams, of Greensburg, were among the throngs of people...
Man shot in both legs in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood
Pittsburgh police launched an investigation late Saturday into the shooting of a man found on the 600 block Brighton Woods Road with gunshot wounds to both legs. Officers received a ShotSpotter alert just after 7:30 p.m. and when they arrived on scene applied two tourniquets to the victim’s legs until...
Quecreek miners, former governor kick off rescue reunion
Former Gov. Mark Schweiker waved the green flag to start the races Saturday night at Jennerstown Speedway Complex in Somerset County, but his duties also marked the start of the 20-year celebration of the rescue of the Quecreek miners. The dramatic rescue two decades ago of the nine miners trapped...
1 job, 2 departments: Westmoreland commissioners set to combine public works, election bureau leadership
Westmoreland officials on Thursday are expected to consolidate leadership of the county’s public works department and election bureau. Public Works Director Greg McCloskey has served in a dual capacity for the past year after he was named as interim director of the election bureau following the June 2021 firing of...
W.Va. man pleads guilty to 2019 drowning of East Huntingdon baby
For the second time in a year, a West Virginia man pleaded guilty in the drowning of an 11-month-old girl in East Huntingdon three years ago. Derrick Anthony Bass, 32, formerly of Uniontown, was ordered to serve up to 34 years in prison for the third-degree murder of the child,...
Unity man seeks dismissal of charges in Latrobe woman’s fatal overdose
The lawyer for a Unity man charged with selling drugs to a Latrobe woman who died from an overdose in 2019 asked a Westmoreland County judge to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. Defense attorney Tim Miller said prosecutors do not have enough evidence to support the charge of...
Blight removal, water/sewer projects, food bank set to receive Westmoreland covid funding
Westmoreland commissioners Tuesday said more than $25 million will be spent from the county’s American Rescue Plan funds to address community redevelopment and ease hunger. For more than a year, commissioners have promised a detailed plan to allocate the $105.4 million earmarked to the county from the American Rescue Plan...
Westmoreland County launches effort to promote human service programs
Human services will be in the spotlight on Thursday when Westmoreland County hosts an open house to promote more than 70 agencies and private vendors as officials ready a plan to consolidate government programs into one unified department. The three-hour event at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood is slated...
Hotel tax revenue totals questioned as counties struggle to identify short-term rentals
Somerset County Treasurer Anthony DeLuca suspected that the hotel tax payments coming into his office were a little sparse. So DeLuca, a retired police detective in his first year of elected office, took it upon himself to investigate how many short-term rentals were on the market in Somerset County, and...
Derry rape suspect found in Mexico
A former Derry man who was charged in 2013 with the rape of a child has been found in Mexico and will be returned to Westmoreland County to stand trial, said District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli Ziccarelli announced Friday that U.S. located Efrain Fernandez-Nicolas nearly eight years after he was originally...
Homicide victim’s mother tells Mt. Pleasant man: ‘No more drugs’
Cathy Clawson had a simple message for the man who pleaded guilty Friday to causing her daughter’s death in 2020. “Just come out a better man. No more drugs,” Clawson told Robert Seth Barnhart after he was sentenced to serve 3-6 years in prison for his role in the crash...
Westmoreland commissioners say deal reached for covid relief spending
An agreement on how to spend a portion of the $105.3 million in federal funds Westmoreland County was allocated as part of the government’s covid-relief efforts will remain under wraps for the next two weeks, commissioners said Thursday. More than $52 million was banked last year from the American Rescue...
Hempfield man pleads guilty to rape of child
A Hempfield man was ordered Thursday to serve 10 to 20 years in prison for the rape of a child. Ted Donald Brown III, 42, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of rape in connection with sexual assaults police said took place over a six-year period that started in 2015....
Jeannette man paroled after guilty plea for police standoff
A Jeannette man was released from jail this week after he was sentenced to serve up to 23 months behind bars for an incident that resulted in a 11-hour police standoff in April. Jesse McCurdy, 49, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of risking a catastrophe and illegal possession of...
Negotiations continue for new medical contract at Westmoreland jail
Westmoreland County commissioners this week approved a $238,700 extension of a multimillion-dollar contract with a private medical provider to continue work at the county jail while officials negotiate a new long-term deal. Commissioners said they expect to have a new deal in place before the end of next month. “We’re...
North Huntingdon man pleads guilty to rape of child
A North Huntingdon man faces up to 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the rape of a child. John Wilbanks, 41, pleaded guilty this week to 48 charges in two cases in connection with events police said occurred over a six-year-period that started in 2013 with a...
Man tells Westmoreland County judge he thought he was a time traveler when he led police on high-speed chase
A Virginia Beach man told a Westmoreland County judge he believed he was a time traveler who was in desperate need to save his son from a corrupt government when he stole a car in a Hempfield shopping plaza and later led police on a high-speed 40-mile chase on the...
Westmoreland prison dog pulled from service over anxiety issues
Kira, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, has been on the job at the Westmoreland County Prison since she was a puppy. On Monday, the county’s prison board took the drug-detecting dog out of service after her handler said she is struggling with anxiety issues related to the electronics at the jail...
McFall takes helm of Westmoreland Democratic committee
Michelle McFall knows just how difficult a job she has. McFall, 53, of Murrysville was elected to lead the Westmoreland County Democratic Committee, an organization that in recent years has seen its influence in local politics erode as voter registration numbers plunge and ballot box losses mount. “We’re now the...
Funerals for Westmoreland County’s unclaimed veterans moved to larger venue
Funeral services next month for 15 veterans whose remains sat unclaimed at the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office will be relocated to Hempfield Park to accommodate a larger-than-expected crowd. Officials said there has been an “overwhelming response” from the community to attend the ceremony. Coroner Tim Carson said Friday he expects...
