Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 69

For the second time in as many years, a Greensburg man serving up to 100 years in prison for the rape of a child was told he has no legal basis to appeal his sentence. A Westmoreland County judge on Wednesday rejected the appeal of Kenneth Lee Richie, who in...

A Jeannette woman accused of using weapons of mass destruction that caused injuries to water authority crews at her home will remain in jail pending the outcome of her trial. Deborah Samulski, 62, had been in jail since last week following her conviction on charges of making false reports to...

A Scottdale man serving a 40-year-prison sentence for the sexual assault of a child is now claiming that Westmoreland County prosecutors coached witnesses during his trial last year. According to an appeal filed Tuesday, Dylan Chiaramonte said the judge who presided over his rape trial improperly allowed the prosecution to...

A Westmoreland County judge on Tuesday rejected a defense request to reduce a $200,000 cash bond that has kept an 18-year-old man in jail since he was charged last month with three counts of attempted murder in connection with a shooting in Greensburg. Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani said...

A New Kensington man charged in a fatal shooting last year in Arnold appeared in a Westmoreland County courtroom Monday and pleaded guilty to a minor drug-related offense as he continues to await trial on a charge of first-degree murder. Mario M. Gatti, 31, is scheduled for trial in October...

A former New Kensington woman will serve up to 10 years in prison for her role in a sex trafficking and prostitution ring that utilized a 14-year-old girl to maximize their earnings. Shannon Lynn Shannon, 46, formerly of Texas, pleaded guilty in November to felony counts of trafficking in minors,...

Water restrictions in McKeesport were extended Friday for about 30 residents in the city’s Lower 10th Ward after contaminants were found in samples collected from homes this week. Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County officials said a majority of the homes and businesses were removed from the “Do Not Drink” order...

A Jeannette woman dared Westmoreland County jurors to convict her Friday. After nearly two hours of deliberations, they complied. Deborah Samulski, 62, was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of filing false reports with a local gas company and city police. During a two-day trial, jurors questioned her mental health, and...

A Greensburg man will serve up to 23 months in jail for the sexual assault of a New Kensington teenager who gave birth to his child. Marcus Franklin Crawford, 25, formerly of Jeannette, pleaded guilty Friday to statutory sexual assault, corruption of a minor and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Police...

A Westmoreland County prosecutor will seek to retry a Pittsburgh man on gun and drug charges after a jury was unable to reach a verdict this week. Prosecutors contend Stefon Wilson, 23, along with other adults and a juvenile, sold heroin and cocaine from a Jeannette home in 2019. Jurors...

Although human services account for 35% of Westmoreland’s $339 million annual budget, it has been several years since any one person oversaw operations for child welfare, aging, behavioral health and developmental programs operated by the county. That is expected to change later this year through $250,000 grant from the Richard...

A Westmoreland County jury convicted a Monessen man of the sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl. Jurors heard testimony from six witnesses over two days and deliberated more than four hours on Wednesday before finding Damien R. Bryan, 20, guilty of two felony charges of indecent assault of a person...

Water restrictions for about 250 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers in McKeesport will remain in place for a least several additional days as officials await results from ongoing testing to determine if dangerous chemicals used to fight a fire last weekend contaminated a section of the city’s water system....

A woman who prosecutors said served as a drug mule for a heroin trafficking organization in Westmoreland County that was conceived of as a way to pay a convicted drug dealer’s legal expenses was herself convicted Wednesday. A jury deliberated about two hours before finding Sade Franklin, 34, formerly of...

A Westmoreland County prosecutor on Tuesday said a Harrisburg woman brought thousands of dollars worth of heroin into the region five years ago as part of a scheme by a convicted drug dealer to pay for the appeal of his 30-year prison sentence. Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar told jurors...

A homeless man was released from jail Monday after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and other offenses in connection with a November 2018 robbery and shooting in Sutersville that left two people wounded. Chad W. Wolfe, 36, was one of four men charged in connection the incident police said...

Westmoreland Commissioner Doug Chew on Monday accused Sheriff James Albert of ignoring a court order that officials say requires his deputies to take sick inmates to and from the county jail. “The sheriff is derelict in his duties,” said Chew, chairman of the Westmoreland County Prison Board. Chew’s comments came...

Go Westmoreland paratransit bus drivers are getting raises. Westmoreland County Transit Authority board members this week approved 4.6% raises for nonunion drivers with the agency’s shared-ride program which provides subsidized door-to-door trips in small buses to seniors, disabled and low-income riders. Driver pay will increase to $15 per hour starting...

Westmoreland County is upping the ante to hire nurses. With nearly three dozen openings at Westmoreland Manor, the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield, officials said increased signing bonuses will be paid to new hires during the final five months of this year. They will receive up to $6,000 in addition...

A former Mt. Pleasant massage parlor owner who served more than a year in jail for human trafficking told a Westmoreland County judge Thursday she did not understand English well enough to plead guilty in late 2019. Hui Xu, 46, testifying through a translator, claimed she did not fully comprehend...

Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday said the recent firing of the county’s election bureau director was necessary in response to a series of errors that plagued the May primary. Speaking publicly for the first time about the decision to oust JoAnn Sebastiani, commissioners said the county conducted “administrative inquires” that initially...

Westmoreland Commissioner Doug Chew on Thursday defended his decision to withhold a promised donation to fund the county’s drug court program. During his campaign for county commissioner in 2019, Chew, a first-term Republican, pledged to donate 60% of his salary to help fund drug court. After questioned by county Controller...

A former Latrobe man will serve up to 20 years in prison for the rape of a Hempfield woman that police said took place just hours after he was released from jail last fall. Zachery David Kimmick, 31, of Homer City pleaded guilty to felony counts of rape and involuntary...