Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 76

Nearly a quarter of Westmoreland County employees were forced to sit home without a paycheck for several months last year while furloughed during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Other staffers, though, more than doubled their annual salaries though hazard pay and overtime. A Tribune-Review analysis of overtime and...

Westmoreland County could receive about $107.1 million from the federal American Rescue Plan to bolster its budget and fund projects to help recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The allocation is part of the $13.7 billion awarded to Pennsylvania and includes funding for county and local governments, according to a report...

Westmoreland Manor could begin in-person visits with residents within weeks even as coronavirus cases continue to pop up among residents and staff at the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield. Officials said Thursday that one additional case was reported and there are three active coronavirus infections among residents at the 403-bed...

A Youngwood man will serve 19 years on probation after he pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony counts of child endangerment and two misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors. Jack Bates,, 47, formerly of Greensburg, who originally was charged with rape and sexual assault of two teenage girls, said it...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will not hear an appeal filed by the Tribune-Review seeking to make public the names of jurors who failed to reach a verdict in the 2018 public corruption trial of former Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held. In a one-sentence order, the state’s high court denied the...

Four of five district judge seats up for grabs in 2021 will have contested primaries in May. Meanwhile, just one countywide race — the Republican primary for the clerk of courts office — will be contested this spring. Barring candidate challenges, the May 18 primary ballots appear set. The deadline...

The murder trial for a Greensburg man charged with the 2017 bludgeoning and strangulation death of a Vandergrift woman is set to begin in June. Prosecutors contend that Walter Cable, 28, is one of two men who robbed 34-year-old Ronny Cable. They are not related. She was beaten with a...

A Hempfield woman has pleaded guilty in connection with three incidents last year in which investigators said she assaulted a police officer, a deputy sheriff and a prison guard. Sonya Rae Connors, 53, was sentenced by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio to serve up to 23 months...

Correction: This story published Feb. 8, 2021, on TribLIVE.com contains information from a court hearing in which Westmoreland County prosecutors successfully argued to modify the pretrial bond of Justin De La Cruz Martinez, who is charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing for an incident police said occurred Nov. 7, 2019,...

The push for help to provide additional covid-19 vaccine doses will continue Monday when Westmoreland County commissioners are scheduled meet with the county’s 11-member state legislative delegation to address future needs. It will be the first joint meeting of the current three-member board of commissioners with state representatives, senators and...

An Allegheny County-based construction contractor will relocate and expand its manufacturing operations from Monessen to Westmoreland County’s I-70 Industrial Park. The deal announced by the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. calls for Robinson-based Wyatt Inc. to purchase nearly 20 acres at the South Huntingdon park to serve as the company’s...

Two men were killed and a juvenile was injured in three separate shootings overnight in Pittsburgh. In the first fatal shooting, police said a man was found dead in a vehicle when they responded to multiple 911 calls of shots fired shortly after midnight Saturday on the 2700 block of...

A Derry man sentenced to a 7-to-14-year prison sentence for the delivery of drugs that prosecutors said led to his friend’s fatal overdose now claims he was “induced” to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit. Glenn A. Levtzow, 39, in court documents filed this week asked to...

Westmoreland County’s Republican leaders on Wednesday demanded Pennsylvania Department of Health officials increase the supply of covid-19 vaccines to the county. In a letter sent to Alison Beam, the state’s acting secretary of health, Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew called for ‘immediate and substantial adjustments” to the distribution of...

Jodie Graft had a simple message to the woman she still blames for her daughter’s overdose death last year in Greensburg. Graft, sobbing, peered over a Plexiglass shield, looked directly at Mary Crimboli-Baker as she stood next her defense lawyer in a Westmoreland County courtroom, and said she wished it...

A Hempfield man was charged with the theft of a wallet from an X-ray scanner at the front entrance of the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Park Police said Verne Klingerman II, 54, used money from the stolen wallet to pay a $30 fine one floor above in the county’s Clerk of...

A Youngwood man will remain in jail to await trial on a charge that he delivered drugs to a woman who died from an overdose in August 2019. Matthew Thomas Caughey pleaded for his release during a court hearing Tuesday as he asked Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani to be...

The sexual assault and child pornography cases against suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez will be conducted May. Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears, following a hearing Monday afternoon, ordered jury selection in the case to begin May 14 and for testimony in the trial to start on May 17. “Given...

Pennsylvania Department of Health officials confirmed that Westmoreland County was shortchanged in the number of covid-19 vaccine doses allocated since December as local and regional leaders continue to highlight mounting issues with the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. County Commissioner Doug Chew said analysis of state data found that...

A Westmoreland County jury acquitted a Greensburg man accused of raping an unconscious woman but couldn’t reach a verdict on another charge of sexual assault. The jury deliberated more than three hours and returned a mixed verdict against Emmanuel Lebbie, 25, who prosecutors said assaulted a woman as she slept...

Westmoreland County Transit will provide free rides on its buses and paratransit vehicles to local covid-19 vaccine clinics. Anyone with a scheduled appointment to receive the vaccine is eligible for the service Mondays through Saturdays in the service area, including Westmoreland County and Downtown Pittsburgh. “We wanted to eliminate a...

Westmoreland County will cap grants awarded this spring to local restaurants, taverns and hotels at $20,000. Grants were authorized as part of a $145 million state program approved last month to assist the hospitality industry. County commissioners said Thursday the grant application process is expected to begin within two weeks...

A Scottdale man who confessed to an armed robbery of a woman in a Hempfield parking lot more than four years ago was found not guilty by a jury on Thursday. After about 90 minutes of deliberations, jurors acquitted Norman Jack, 30, of robbery, theft and three other related offenses...