Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 68
Lawsuit claims Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau failed to protect New Ken 3-year-old killed in 2020
The maternal grandfather of a nearly 3-year-old New Kensington boy beaten to death in 2020 claims the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau failed to protect the child after it received allegations he was subjected to repeated incidents of physical and sexual abuse at the hands his mother and her live-in boyfriend....
Murrysville, North Huntingdon Republicans blast new congressional map; Democrats invigorated by changes
Republicans in Westmoreland County towns included in a redrawn congressional district based in Pittsburgh said they fear their communities will be excluded from key decision-making and have a reduced voice in national politics. Meanwhile, local Democrats said the move to align the county’s largest municipalities with traditional Democratic enclaves will...
Westmoreland’s western towns shifted to Pittsburgh-based Congressional district
Some Republican strongholds along the western edge of Westmoreland County will be part of a new Democratic-based Congressional district under a redistricting plan approved Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The county will continue to have two representatives in Congress. Irwin, Jeannette, Murrysville, North Huntingdon, Penn Township, Sewickley and part...
Jeannette woman’s conviction for false report to police overturned
A judge Tuesday overturned a guilty verdict issued against a Jeannette woman who prosecutors said made false reports to local police. Deborah Samulski, 62, served more than three months in jail after she was convicted last summer of two misdemeanor charges of filing false reports with a local gas company...
Hempfield man pleads guilty to lesser charges in connection with knife attack
Westmoreland County prosecutors this week dismissed assault and strangulation charges against a Hempfield man accused in the stabbing of a woman during an argument over rent. During guilty plea hearing for Franz Nute Wade Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Echard told Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger that “evidentiary issues”...
Westmoreland transit authority sees signs of rebound after years of pandemic-related declines
After months of declines in ridership during the coronavirus pandemic, Westmoreland County Transit Authority buses appear to have turned a corner. Transit officials said last week the agency’s fixed-route bus service, which operates 18 weekday and six Saturday routes throughout Westmoreland County and commuter service to Pittsburgh, has seen marginal...
Resignations leave Westmoreland coroner’s office short-staffed
Tim Carson, Westmoreland County’s new coroner, has lost 40% of his full-time staff as the office’s top lieutenant resigned and one of its longest- serving deputies retired. Chief Deputy Kirk Nolan and deputy John Ackerman, both holdovers from former Coroner Ken Bacha’s administration, are off the job, Carson said. The first-term...
Additional construction slated for Westmoreland Technology Park in Hempfield
A Pittsburgh-area developer said it will increase its presence in Westmoreland County with plans for an industrial building and warehouse on nearly 15 acres at an industrial park in Hempfield. Westmoreland commissioners, acting as the county’s Industrial Development Corp., approved a deal to sell the parcel at the Westmoreland Technology Park...
Westmoreland County pays $150K to settle inmate lawsuit over claims of guard attack
Westmoreland commissioners have approved a $150,000 settlement to end a federal lawsuit filed by a New Mexico man who claimed county jail guards brutally beat him two years ago. James Mapp, 34, sued the county after he claimed he was assaulted by guards at Westmoreland County Prison following his arrest...
Westmoreland commissioners hire help to create new human services department
Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday hired a consultant to forge a newly created office that consolidates all county human services programs into one department as the search for its permanent director continues. The effort to hire a full-time human services director has been ongoing since last summer after commissioners adopted findings...
Search for new Westmoreland elections director stalls
The Westmoreland County commissioners have indefinitely halted a search for a new election bureau director. The department has been without a top executive since the commissioners fired the former director last summer after she served 10 months on the job. Since June, it has been operated with two interim directors...
Municipal authority taps federal program to keep water flowing in Westmoreland homes
More than 100 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers have received nearly $31,000 since the start of this year from a new federal program to help low-income residents pay delinquent water and sewer bills. The Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program was authorized last year and funded through two federal bills,...
Westmoreland jury finds father not guilty for napping while small children roamed
A former Greensburg man was found not guilty Tuesday of three felony offenses in which he was accused of being asleep as his young children walked alone on city streets. Jurors deliberated more than four hours before it acquitted Antonio Partlow, 33, now of New Kensington, of three counts of...
Mail-in ballot applications sent to voters as questions remain ahead of May primary
About 350,000 applications for mail-in ballots were sent to voters in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties over the past two weeks as local election officials prepare for a May primary election in the midst of uncertainty over the legality of the state’s voting laws and jurisdictions of congressional and state legislative...
Child endangerment trial begins for father accused of leaving kids alone on cold Greensburg street
A Westmoreland County jury will begin hearing evidence Tuesday in the case against a man charged with allowing his three young children to wander the streets of Greensburg alone on a cold Valentine’s Day two years ago. Prosecutors contend Antonio Partlow, 33, and his wife, of Charleroi, were asleep shortly...
Westmoreland County to boost program to help jail inmates re-enter society
Westmoreland County court officials expected a program launched in early 2020 to assist jail inmates to reintegrate into society to be off and by running now. After two years of restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials are looking to kick-start the effort to help convicted criminals acclimate back into...
Hempfield man pleads guilty to assault of ex-girlfriend at Unity hotel
A Hempfield man was ordered to serve up to 23 months in prison for a violent assault of a former girlfriend last year in a Unity hotel. Jule A. Mascherma, 34, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and terroristic threats in connection with an incident last March...
As jury deliberates, New Kensington teen pleads guilty to Vandergrift park shooting
A New Kensington teenager pleaded guilty Friday to charges he shot a marijuana dealer in a Vandergrift park more than two years ago. The plea deal came as a Westmoreland County jury deliberated in the case against Ryleik Arbuckle, 17. Prosecutors contend that Arbuckle pistol-whipped a man who came to...
New Kensington teen on trial accused of Vandergrift park shooting, robbery attempt
A New Kensington teenager is on trial in Westmoreland County charged with the robbery and shooting of a marijuana dealer at a Vandergrift park in November 2019. Police contend Ryleik Arbuckle was just 15 when he shot 20-year-old Dale McNutt in the buttocks as he ran out of Franklin Park...
Unity woman awaiting assault trials blames school hazing allegations for mental spiral
The lawyer for a Unity woman awaiting trial for assault of a nurse and charges she intentionally rammed a car driven by a high school student told a judge on Wednesday her mental health difficulties that led to the criminal cases stemmed from a hazing incident that involved middle school...
Judge says no evidence Westmoreland DA favors the famous
A Derry Township man will serve three days in jail for driving his Dodge Charger 120 mph on Route 22 while drunk nearly two years ago after a judge rejected a defense argument that prosecutors gave preferential treatment to a local celebrity and unfairly rejected a bid by a “blue...
Guilty plea entered in Greensburg woman’s fatal overdose
An Allegheny County woman pleaded guilty to supplying the fatal dose of heroin used in the overdose of a Greensburg woman in May 2019. Britnee R. Clark, 41, of Avalon was one of three people charged in connection with the death of 59-year-old Roxanne Gongaware, whose body along with drug...
Covid-19 surge at Westmoreland jail eases, inmate transports to resume
Transportation of inmates to court hearings will resume Wednesday as the number of coronavirus cases at the Westmoreland County Prison continues to decline. Common Pleas Court President Judge Rita Hathaway rescinded a court order issued in late January that halted inmate transfers amid a wave of new cases that saw...
North Huntingdon man, now 19, seeks to move armed robbery case to juvenile court
A now 19-year-old man should be prosecuted in juvenile court for a 2020 armed robbery of two men in Mt. Pleasant, a psychologist told a Westmoreland County judge. Dr. Michael Crabtree, a professor at Washington and Jefferson College who was hired by the legal defense team, said Elijah Chaabane’s life...
Churchill man to serve 2 to 5 five years in prison for Arnold shooting
Devon Askew told a Westmoreland County judge he regretted that his actions two years ago in Arnold that left a man shot to death but maintained he never planned to hurt a home intruder he believed was there to injure a woman or her child. “I am truly sorry and...
