Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 56

A former Westmoreland County deputy sheriff pleaded guilty Friday to charges he bribed female inmates with tobacco products in return for sexual favors. Daniel Aaron Gradischek, 34, of Unity, was charged in late 2019 with five criminal counts alleging that over a 10-year period he used his position as a...

Westmoreland County will use cash in an attempt bolster its roster of 911 dispatchers and call-takers. Commissioners have agreed to a $486,000 financial package to award raises to dozens of county employees in multiple departments and award bonuses to 911 staffers, as well as new hires. “This is a public...

A Westmoreland County judge this week rejected the appeal of a Washington County man serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of his father-in-law in Donegal Township. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani, in a 12-page opinion, ruled there was no evidence to support claims made by Michael Martin...

Westmoreland County has millions of dollars at the ready to help residents pay their back rent and bills, with much of that cash yet to be spent. The county has received another nearly $3.4 million from the state to bolster the ongoing rental assistance program authorized through federal coronavirus relief...

Jonathan Held, the former Westmoreland County sheriff once tried by state prosecutors in a public corruption case, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor theft charge. A judge sentenced him to serve six months on probation. Held, 48, formerly of Hempfield, lives in Cape Coral, Fla. As part of his plea...

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County has filed a lawsuit against more than two dozen chemical companies, accusing them of manufacturing toxic substances and contaminating the local water system. The six-count lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County seeks damages associated with chemicals that leached into the water supply but also for...

A Penn Township man will serve up to 10 years in prison for stealing a neighbor’s jewelry in 2019. Michael Joseph Lapaglia, 31, was convicted in November by a Westmoreland County jury of felony burglary and trespassing as well as misdemeanor counts of theft and receiving stolen property. According to...

It took five days and $300 in parking tickets before Westmoreland County reached an agreement for Greensburg parking enforcement officers to stop citing inmate transport vans for parking in metered spaces outside the downtown courthouse. “They are adding up,” Sheriff James Albert said Tuesday about the tickets being incurred by...

A Clairton man convicted of running a major drug trafficking operation in Westmoreland County has been granted a one month hiatus from prison. Lindsey R. Wright, 42, who was sentenced late last week to serve up to 10 years in prison, will be released to house arrest before his newly...

A Penn Township woman told a Westmoreland County judge on Monday that the two-year minimum sentence for the man who sexually assaulted her while her young child was in another room in her home wasn’t long enough. “A two-year sentence for what he has done is not justice. My life...

A suspended mental health therapist wants seven separate juries to hear evidence from 10 former patients who claim they were victims of sexual assaults, harassed, groped or subjected to other inappropriate behavior during counseling sessions over the last decade. Gregory P. Miscik, 60, of Latrobe was first charged in November...

It had been a month since the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh’s East End collapsed, and the memory was fresh in the mind of Westmoreland County Public Works Director Greg McCloskey as he gathered his bosses around a conference table to meet with an engineer. It was at that Feb....

A jury on Friday awarded $19 million in damages to a Vandergrift man left paralyzed from an accident in a friend’s swimming pool, in what is believed to be the largest verdict ever issued in Westmoreland County. Jurors found that Washington Township homeowners Robert and Laura O’Black were negligent and...

A Westmoreland County jury will begin deliberations Friday to determine if a Washington Township couple is responsible for injuries that left their son’s best friend paralyzed after he broke his neck in 2013 in their backyard swimming pool. Lawyers for Michael Fraser, 29, of Vandergrift contend Robert and Laura O’Black...

A Delmont woman was charged amid allegations that she threatened to hang the Westmoreland County judge who is overseeing her ongoing custody dispute. Detectives said Jennifer Gesuale, 42, posted a YouTube video on March 7 in which she is alleged to have called for the murder of Westmoreland County Common...

The county job fair at Westmoreland Mall was a big success, officials said. More than 40 applications were received for 50-plus vacant jobs in county government, according to Sam Miller, associate director of the human resources department. “It seems to have been a successful event,” Miller said. The goal of...

Engineers in late January found deteriorating structural beams in a parking garage below the Westmoreland County Courthouse in downtown Greensburg. County officials said Tuesday that while urgency is needed to make repairs, there is no imminent threat of collapse. Core samples taken in October found evidence of deteriorating beams from...

Courthouse Square and the Main Street entrance to the Westmoreland County Courthouse will be closed for at least six months to repair structural issues on the lower two underground parking levels below the government complex in Greensburg. Commissioners on Tuesday are expected to award a $7 million emergency contract for...

Lawyers for a Vandergrift man who suffered a broken neck and spinal cord injuries in a swimming pool accident at a friend’s Washington Township home in 2013 on Monday asked a Westmoreland County jury to award him more than $9 million in damages. Jurors will spend the next week hearing...

Westmoreland officials believe there are more than 1,200 dilapidated buildings scattered throughout the county’s 65 municipalities and next month will kick start an effort to remove that blight. The county’s Redevelopment Authority will conduct a daylong “boot camp” April 22 at Westmoreland County Community College for local leaders to address...

The 85-year-old mother of a Unity man authorities have called a person of interest in the 2018 disappearance of Cassandra Gross pleaded guilty Friday in a conspiracy to swindle government benefits while her son was in jail on pending charges. Police said Almira Stanko, at her son’s direction, used his...

A Greensburg man convicted earlier for smuggling drugs into the Westmoreland County Prison pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony weapons offense and was ordered to serve up to 23 months behind bars. Jamel Miles, 34, was originally jailed March 3, 2021, after he was arrested by Greensburg police on charges...

A Westmoreland County judge said an example needed to be set to highlight the ongoing drug epidemic when he sentenced a former Export man to jail for selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a friend who died of an overdose. A jury in December acquitted Kelly Ryan Frank, 54, of drug delivery...

An Arnold man will serve up to three years in prison for the sexual assault of a girl in her mid-teens. Marcel Lynne Hayes, 31, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count as part of a plea bargain. Hayes initially rejected the deal but ultimately accepted after a Westmoreland County...

Former state senator Bob Regola was ordered Wednesday to serve one year on probation for a drunken driving arrest last October in Penn Township. Regola, 59, of North Huntingdon, was charged with two counts of driving while under the influence of alcohol and three traffic offenses after a traffic stop...