Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 81

Additional video conferencing rooms will be built at Westmoreland County Prison to allow for more court hearings to be held remotely as coronavirus infections continue to spread among inmates. Commissioners on Thursday hired Laurel Design and Construction Inc. of Hempfield to install new areas at the jail to allow more...

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County reached a tentative agreement to purchase the small sewer system that currently serves about 800 East Huntingdon residents. Authority officials said Wednesday the deal, which is pending approval from both township officials and municipal authority board members, would transfer East Huntingdon’s sewage treatment plant...

An Allegheny County based private management company will get a $5 million raise to help run operations for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County over the next decade. A new deal with Resource Development and Management Inc. comes five years into the company’s existing 10-year $13.8 million pact, which was...

A pending federal lawsuit is likely to determine who represents residents in the state’s 45th Senatorial District. Incumbent Jim Brewster, a Democrat from McKeesport, currently holds a 73-vote lead over New Kensington lawyer Nicole Ziccarelli, a Republican. But a federal judge in Pittsburgh is considering a lawsuit Ziccarelli’s campaign filed...

Westmoreland County criminal and civil trials — suspended this month because of the surging number of coronavirus cases — will be halted until February. Common Pleas Court President Judge Rita Hathaway signed a court order Tuesday to delay all trials until Feb. 1. Two weeks of civil trials and one...

Westmoreland County government retirees will receive small cost-of-living raises in 2021. The county’s retirement board, which includes the three county commissioners along with Treasurer Jared Squires and Controller Jeffrey Balzer, on Tuesday unanimously approved a 0.4% benefit increase for about 1,300 retired government workers. Annual cost-of-living raises are determined using...

Two Westmoreland County elected officials said Tuesday they tested positive for coronavirus. Sean Kertes, chairman of the county commissioners, and Clerk of Courts Bryan Kline both said they are experiencing symptoms of the virus and both are at their respective homes in isolation. “I had a 100-, 101-degree temperature and,...

An East Huntingdon woman in jail since September on charges of fatally shooting a former boyfriend claimed in court documents filed Monday there is no evidence she intended to kill her victim. Adam Gorzelsky, the lawyer for Meghan West, 24, asked a Westmoreland County judge to dismiss a first-degree murder...

A massive coronavirus outbreak at Westmoreland County Prison has seen more than 100 inmates and a number of staffers infected over the past 10 days, and officials believe additional cases are possible at the lockup in Hempfield. Interim Warden George Lawther said Monday two units are in lockdown in an...

A Unity woman who has worked for the last decade as a criminal justice liaison with the county’s mental health agency announced this week she will run to fill a potentially vacant district justice seat. Rebecca Salandro, 38, said she wants to serve as a judge on the local court...

Two Westmoreland County Courthouse offices were shut down Friday as the coronavirus continues to surge. The Register of Wills Office, which processes estate documents and marriage licenses, was closed on the courthouse’s third floor along with the Public Defender’s Office on the fourth floor after staffers tested positive for the...

Westmoreland County will award a final round of covid-relief grants next week to small businesses, while nonprofit agencies and local volunteer fire departments will receive awards later this month. Commissioners on Thursday increased grants handed out last week to Penn and Washington townships to cover coronavirus-related costs incurred by their...

The lawyer for former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez said 11 criminal charges related to allegations that he and a teenage girl exchanged sexually explicit text messages should be dismissed over jurisdictional issues. In court documents filed this week, defense attorney Gary Gerson said those charges related to alleged crimes...

Coronavirus cases among residents in five public housing properties throughout Westmoreland County were reported over the past week. Residents in communities in Greensburg, Hempfield, Latrobe and Monessen have reported contracting the virus, confirmed Michael Washowich, executive director of the Westmoreland County Housing Authority. “It’s a trend that mirrors what has...

All trials scheduled for December in Westmoreland County will be postponed amid the rising number of coronavirus cases already diagnosed and the potential for a continued surge in the coming weeks. Common Pleas Court President Judge Rita Hathaway said Wednesday that criminal trials slated to start next week will be...

As covid-19 cases continue to surge, Westmoreland officials said Tuesday that courthouse offices will scale back some public-facing services in an effort to mitigate the spread of infections. County Commissioner Sean Kertes said that unlike the spring, when commissioners furloughed hundreds of workers and limited most courthouse functions, there will...

Republican Gina O’Barto announced this week her candidacy for what is expected to be an open seat as prothonotary in Westmoreland County. O’Barto, 57, of Unity finished second in the 2017 Republican primary for the office that has for the last 11 years been held by Christina O’Brien, a Democrat....

Lawyers for the campaigns of Democratic incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster and Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli continued to argue in two different courts Friday over the legality more than 400 ballots cast in two counties that will swing the outcome of the tied race for the 45th District, which straddles...

Westmoreland County Transit Authority’s refurbished park-and-ride lot in North Huntingdon will reopen Monday. The lot, near Carpenter Lane next to a Sheetz location on Route 30, was closed since March for resurfacing and other upgrades. Transit officials said this week the $1.8 million project to pave and line the lot...

Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli has pulled into a tie with Democratic incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster in the race for the 45th District seat. Ziccarelli, a New Kensington lawyer, was trailing Brewster by 28 votes late Thursday afternoon, but she made up those votes as the tally from the Westmoreland...

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court this week upheld the death sentence imposed against the man convicted in the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally disabled woman in Greensburg. Justices unanimously rejected the appeal from Melvin Knight of Swissvale, who claimed a Westmoreland County jury improperly sentenced him to death by lethal injection...

Westmoreland County commissioners unanimously fired a Republican volunteer from his role as a member of the county’s provisional board for partisan activity during ballot reviews. Commissioners said Thomas Altman, 70, of Ligonier, improperly coordinated efforts with a Republican campaign poll watcher to challenge contested provisional ballots earlier this week. Altman...

Westmoreland County Commissioners said a final certification of election results won’t come until after Thanksgiving as officials continue to deal with a coronavirus outbreak among employees tasked with completing the ballot count. As of Wednesday, the outbreak that started days before the Nov. 3 election left just two full-time and...

The appeal of a Penn Hills man serving life in prison for a murder he claims was committed by his dead twin brother was rejected Tuesday by a Westmoreland County judge. Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio, in an 11-page decision, called the appeal from Darrelle Tolbert-McGhee “without merit” and...

An Arnold man claims his 20-year prison sentence for the sale of drugs connected to the 2014 fatal overdose of a Lower Burrell woman is excessive. In an appeal filed Monday, the lawyer for Demetrius Houser claims prosecutors agreed to more disproportionate and lenient sentences against two co-defendants who served...