Monessen man accused by police of beating man with cinder block during robbery arrested

A Monessen man wanted by city police for beating a man with a cinder block during a robbery Friday was arrested this week in Washington County.

Dwayne M. “Peenie” Grogan, 55, was arraigned on multiple criminal charges including attempted homicide Monday after he was arrested Monongahela police on an arrest warrant. Police obtained the warrant for Grogan after a 12:50 a.m. Friday attack of a man inside a home in the 200 block of McKee Avenue, police said.

Officer Jacob Hensell said the man was treated for serious head wounds at Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital in Washington County.

The victim told Hensell from his hospital bed that he received a telephone call from Grogan to meet him at a woman’s house on McKee Avenue, but, as he entered the home, “he was immediately struck in the head from behind by a blunt object, which caused him to fall over a coffee table and onto the (floor) in the living room,” Hensell wrote in court documents.

The man said he was knocked unconscious and was told Grogan went through his pockets and stole between $400 and $500.

“(The victim) told me multiple times that Grogan left him there to die,” Hensell wrote.

In addition to attempted homicide, Grogan was arraigned Monday on charges of aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and theft. He was ordered held in the county prison by District Judge Wayne Vlasic after failing to post $75,000 bond.

In 2017, Grogan pleaded guilty to DUI, fleeing and eluding police and reckless driving charges filed by Monessen police after a crash and was sentenced to serve 15 to 30 months in prison and two years of probation, according to court records.