Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 51
Former Southwest Greensburg cop convicted for illegal traffic stop
A former part-time Southwest Greensburg police officer was convicted Tuesday of official oppression for a traffic stop while off duty and in an other jurisdiction. Prosecutors contended James Shaw, 56, of Mt. Pleasant Township initiated a traffic stop in East Huntingdon in October 2020 then followed the same vehicle for...
Westmoreland elected officials to receive record raises
Westmoreland County elected officials are getting huge raises in 2023. Commissioners, along with row officers and judges, will receive 7.8% higher wages next year under an existing pay structure put in place more than two decades ago to ensure the county’s election officials receive annual cost of living increases. Raises...
Turtle Creek man to serve 40-year prison sentence for sex trafficking of teen
A Turtle Creek man will serve at least 20 years in prison for the sex trafficking of a New Kensington teenager. Davon Allen Fuqua, 36, pleaded guilty in September to four felony offenses including the trafficking of minors, statutory sexual assault of a juvenile, promotion of prostitution of a minor...
Youngwood drug dealer sentenced to 8-year prison term
A Youngwood man acquitted last month of rape charges was ordered Friday to serve up to eight years in prison for a related simple assault of an 18-year-old woman and and for the possession of illegal drug offenses. Brandon Giron, 23, told a Westmoreland County judge he was ready to...
Bond set for Jeannette man charged in Rialto stabbing
A Westmoreland County judge ruled a Jeannette man charged with attempted homicide during a stabbing in front of the Rialto Bar and Bistro last month in downtown Greensburg can be released from jail as he awaits trial. Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani set a $250,000 straight cash bond for Anthony...
Vote totals from recounted precincts certified in Westmoreland County
The Westmoreland County Election Board this week issued a final certification of results from five voting precincts subjected to a court-ordered recount. Voters from precincts in Salem, Hempfield, Loyalhanna, Lower Burrell and Ligonier Borough petitioned the courts to recount votes cast as part of the Nov. 8 general election for...
Westmoreland commissioners agree to settle 2 federal lawsuits
Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday approved payments totaling $45,000 to settle two federal lawsuits. One case involved a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2017 by a deputy sheriff who claimed the department’s drug-sniffing dog was removed from his care as retaliation for speaking with state investigators probing suspected election law violations by...
Corporate exec pleads guilty to forging fake divorce papers to keep up affair
A North Huntingdon corporate executive pleaded guilty Thursday to forging a judge’s name on a fake court record as part of a plot police said was designed to convince his lover to continue an extramarital affair. Dennis George Durmis Jr., 50, was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and perform...
Westmoreland budget balanced with American Rescue Plan funds
More than $8 million in federal covid-relief funds will be used to pay annual subsidies that, in prior years, were paid for from the county’s general operating budget, Westmoreland commissioners said Thursday. The earmarking of American Rescue Plan funds to the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, Westmoreland County Community College and...
Appeals court overturns sexual assault convictions against former Mt. Pleasant cop
An appeals court has overturned two sexual assault convictions against a former part-time Mt. Pleasant police officer, saying the cases were prosecuted in the wrong county. A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled allegations levied by two women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by John Brown, 49,...
Ohio truck driver pleads guilty to causing fatal crash on Interstate 70
Sheila Walton dabbed tears from her eyes as she told a Westmoreland County judge that the Ohio truck driver who initiated a fatal rear-end collision two years ago on Interstate 70 in South Huntingdon changed her family forever. Walton’s 27-year-old son, Dillon Walton of New Stanton, was killed as he...
Greensburg man’s rape sentence reduced
A Greensburg man convicted earlier this year for his role in the rape of a 5-year-old boy had his 168-year prison sentenced reduced on this week. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani overturned one of 22 convictions against Charles Jason Hunter, 36. Defense attorneys claimed prosecutors mislabeled one...
Judge rules Jeannette police arrest supported by evidence
A Westmoreland County judge this week ruled that Jeannette police had the legal authority to detain and charge a New Alexandria man after a car crash last year near a school. David Vucish, 50, claims police used excessive force during the May 11, 2021, incident and sought to have criminal...
Westmoreland will cut ties with renowned pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht
Westmoreland County is cutting ties with renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht. The county commissioners Thursday are expected to approve a one-year contract with Wecht’s former assistant to do autopsies for Coroner Tim Carson and rent the autopsy suite at Westmoreland’s forensics center in Hempfield. Wecht, 92, has worked as...
Westmoreland to launch human service grant program
Westmoreland commissioners said Tuesday the county will award $3 million in grants to help fund mental health and other human services programs in 2023. The grant program will be paid for with a portion of the county’s $105.4 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds. “We decided early on we...
20 years after daughter’s murder, former Monessen man in court, accused of violating sex offender sentence terms
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani must have had a feeling of deja vu Monday when John Bright stood before him. Two decades ago, Feliciani was a court-appointed attorney representing the Monessen father as the man pleaded guilty to misusing burial funds donated for his murdered 8-year-old daughter. Bright,...
MAWC lifts boil water advisory for Hempfield, Unity
A boil water advisory issued over the weekend to about 4,500 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers in Hempfield and Unity was lifted Monday afternoon. The authority said no contamination was found during tests of water lines affected by a leak that drained a water storage tank serving the area,...
Holiday sale brings out shoppers at Bushy Run Battlefield
Bill and Karen Gourdie were ready for the rush. The owners of Bushy Run Winery brought 30 cases to sell Sunday afternoon for the fourth annual Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society Christmas sale. “They’ll probably be all gone by the end of the day,” Karen Gourdie said. Husband Bill serves...
Pan Am Flight 103 parents say bomber’s arrest ‘bittersweet’
Shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday, Glenn and Carole Johnson of Hempfield received the call they had been awaiting for more than three decades. The U.S. Justice Department told them Sunday the man who built the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, finally...
Arts, crafts featured at Greensburg library’s Family Maker Day
Maggie McCaffrey set out to paint sheep. Using a bamboo brush dipped in water, 13-year-old McCaffrey’s zen-like artwork started to drip and morph. So she pivoted and recast her picture as rain clouds. The 10th grader from Hempfield was among those who participated Saturday in the Greensburg-Hempfield Area Library’s latest...
Police investigate after wounded man walks into Pittsburgh hospital
Pittsburgh police said an investigation is ongoing to determine the circumstances that led to a man arriving on his own at a hospital Sunday morning with multiple gunshot wounds. The unidentified adult man presented himself at the hospital at about 6:20 a.m. and was listed in critical condition, police said....
Woman found dead in Elliott home under investigation
Pittsburgh police are investigating an apparent fatal shooting Saturday night inside a home in the city’s Elliott neighborhood. Police responded to a call at 11:35 p.m. from a family member at the home on the 900 block of Wilhelm Street who reported a woman in her 60s was found unresponsive...
Boil water advisory issued for MAWC customers in Hempfield and Unity
A boil water advisory was issued Saturday morning to about 4,500 Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers in portions of Hempfield and Unity. The advisory is expected to be in place until at least Monday morning, authority spokesman Matthew Junker said. Officials said customers will be notified when repairs are...
Judge dismisses charges against Jeannette man who refused to supply ID to police
A criminal case was dismissed against a Jeannette man charged with obstruction of justice based on allegations that he refused to identify himself to police last year. Jonathan Durbiano, 42, was detained by Jeannette police in the early hours of June 6, 2021, on Maryland Street. He also was charged...
Recipients announced for 2023 Westmoreland tourism grants
Michael Hartung wants more exposure for the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Museum, and, by virtue of a grant funded by Westmoreland County’s hotel tax, he now has the money to make that happen. “We’re trying to bring in people from the outside. The only people who come are firefighters or...
