Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 131
New Florence man gets house arrest for setting fire in apartment building
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...
GOP candidates for Westmoreland commissioner refuse donations tied to no-contract bids
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...
Democrat announces candidacy for Westmoreland County Register of Wills
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...
Officials from Westmoreland County townships to hold annual convention
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.,...
Hempfield doctor enters no contest plea in overdose death case
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...
Chief of staff to seek GOP nomination for former state Sen. Don White’s seat
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...
Latrobe man sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for 2017 shooting death
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...
Judge rejects bid to have Hempfield man released from prison pending jury trial
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...
Rostraver man loses 3rd appeal of life sentence for murder
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...
ATF still investigating Jeannette fatal fire evidence; trial date to be set later
Investigators continue to analyze evidence collected at the scene of a 2018 Jeannette fire in which an elderly woman died. Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro said Friday in a court hearing for the man accused of setting the April 9 blaze that evidence collected at the scene is still being...
Man rejects plea deal in East Huntingdon pedestrian fatality case
A New Stanton motorist prosecutors contend was under the influence of drugs when he struck and killed a pedestrian on Christmas Eve 2016 in East Huntingdon rejected a plea deal on Friday that would have required him to serve up to 40 years in prison. Matthew Ramsay, 31, is charged...
Death penalty upheld for ‘Greensburg Six’ roommate Melvin Knight
A Westmoreland County judge has upheld the death penalty imposed against one of the six Greensburg roommates convicted in the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally disabled woman. Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway ruled evidence presented in a sentencing trial last November was sufficient to support a jury finding...
Vandergrift man gets up to 10 years in prison for raping 9-year-old boy
A Vandergrift man will serve up to 10 years in prison for raping a child. Brian Redmond, 33, pleaded guilty Friday in Westmoreland County to charges of rape and two other counts in connection with sexual assaults prosecutors said occurred in late 2016 and early 2017. Police also charged Redmond...
State appeals court upholds verdict in 2017 Excela stent cases; several others still pending in court system
A state appellate court affirmed a 2017 Westmoreland County jury verdict that cleared a doctor and Excela Health of wrongdoing for implanting cardiac stents into a patient who claimed they were unnecessary. The appeal involved a lawsuit filed by a North Huntingdon man who claimed five of the seven stents...
Jeannette woman rescinds murder plea, will head to trial
A Jeannette woman accused of violently beating her boyfriend to death on Thursday withdrew her guilty plea to third-degree murder. Crystal Belle, 39, pleaded guilty in September for the June 11, 2016, beating death of 19-year-old Khalil Parker, of Brentwood, Allegheny County, in her South Seventh Street home. The deal...
Trial for Rahmael Holt, charged with killing Officer Brian Shaw, postponed until August
The capital murder trial of a Harrison man charged with the November 2017 shooting death of a New Kensington police officer has been postponed until August. The attorney for Rahmael Sal Holt, 30, said in court Wednesday that he needed more time to prepare for trial, which had been scheduled...
Prosecutors want John Kunco’s attorneys to turn over evidence in rape retrial
Westmoreland County prosecutors want defense lawyers for a former Harrison man accused of a brutal rape in New Kensington nearly three decades ago to turn over evidence that could be used during a retrial. Assistant District Attorneys Barbara Jollie and James Hopson filed court documents Wednesday seeking reports and mental...
Generators protect Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County from disruptions during power outages
Water continued to flow to the more than 120,000 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers, even as thousands of residents continued to deal with power outages caused by recent wind storms. Authority officials said Wednesday the water system is relying on generators at nine pump stations where power has been...
Hempfield woman seeks release from prison as she awaits child pornography trial
A Hempfield woman accused of distributing a video depicting a woman having sexual contact with a young child wants to be released from prison while she awaits trial. Amanda Smith, 29, has been in jail since her arrest last August when she was charged with distributing photographs of sex acts...
Fayette man pleads guilty in sex sting
A Fayette County man pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he attempted to solicit sex from a 14-year-old boy. Kelly Lee Harrington, 49, of Normalville, was arrested last June as part of a sting operation by the state Attorney General’s office. Investigators said Harrington contacted a teenage boy through social...
New office for Hempfield district judge opens
A new office building for Hempfield District Judge Mark Mansour opened for business this week. The facility on South Greengate Road replaces an office building that will be demolished later this year to make way for construction of a new senior citizen housing complex on property owned by the Westmoreland...
Westmoreland GOP commissioner candidates accuse county Democrats of hijacking conservative message
Republican candidates for Westmoreland County commissioner Tuesday accused a wing of the local Democratic Party of stealing the GOP’s message and pandering to conservative voters. Candidates Doug Chew, John Ventre and Heather Cordial issued a joint statement critical to a movement pushed by incumbent Democratic Commissioner Gina Cerilli and a...
Deputy seeking Republican nomination for Westmoreland sheriff
Steven Felder, a Westmoreland County deputy sheriff, will make his third bid to run the office he has worked in for the last 25 years. Felder, 55, of Penn Township, announced Tuesday he is seeking the Republican nomination for sheriff. Two-term Republican incumbent Jonathan Held previously said he will seek...
Penn Hills man’s murder trial delayed till May
The trial of an Allegheny County man charged with in a shooting death that occurred nearly two years ago in Jeannette is now scheduled to begin in May. Darrelle Tolbert-McGhee, 30, of Penn Hills, has been in jail since he was arrested for the April 13, 2017, shooting death of...
Former Monessen man sentenced for burning child with scalding water
A former Monessen man was sentenced Monday to serve up to 23 months in jail for an assault against a 3-year-old boy whose hands were severely burned with hot water in 2017. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani ordered Fred Bacon, 24, now of Butler, to complete mental...
