Jun 28, 2009
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
A lawsuit filed by relatives of a man hit and killed by a drunken driver two years ago has been settled.Darlene D. Brunner and Sharon Anthony, sisters of Michael Blankenbiller and administrators of his estate, filed the lawsuit two years ago against Denise R. Hall and Larry W. Hall, of Maytown, and ...
Jun 21, 2009
STAFF REPORTS
Equipment Finance LLC, the company whose "massive fraud" led to the fall of Sterling Financial, has filed nearly two dozen lawsuits in both local and federal courts against customers who borrowed money to buy heavy logging equipment — and didn't pay it back.The lawsuits, most fil...
Jun 19, 2009
JACK BRUBAKER
Luis David Villafane killed himself in Lancaster County Prison last November as a result of "intentional, deliberate and reckless actions" by prison personnel, according to the complaint of a lawsuit filed in federal district court this week.But Prison Warden Vincent Guarini contests that allegation...
Jun 18, 2009
BRIAN WALLACE
Less than two weeks before a racial discrimination lawsuit against School District of Lancaster is scheduled to go to trial, most of the allegations against the district and its former employees have been dismissed.U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick Friday dismissed three allegations again...
Jun 14, 2009
JEANNETTE SCOTT
Three widows are trying to forgive Sarah Timblin, the drunken driver who killed their husbands last year. But they aren't letting her, or those who they charge enabled her, off the hook for restitution.Marlin Banks Sr. and brothers Inocente Sanchez and Luis Sanchez were killed when Timblin's...
May 30, 2009
LARRY ALEXANDER
Lancaster County Prison Warden Vincent Guarini does not deny that one of his guards repeatedly struck an inmate who was chained to a hospital bed.But claims that the prison has a "culture of ongoing unconstitutional abuse," as cited in a civil lawsuit, are "attorney embellishment,&quo...
May 29, 2009
JACK BRUBAKER
The Lancaster County Commissioners are not pleased that they first read details of inflammatory criminal and civil complaints against a former Lancaster County Prison guard in Thursday's newspaper.And they are unhappy that a small group of correctional officers are giving the majority of guards ...
May 29, 2009
LARRY ALEXANDER
A former inmate at Lancaster County Prison claims he was beaten by a prison guard while shackled to a hospital bed last summer.According to a lawsuit filed May 20 by Vance Laughman, 36, of 44 W. Liberty St., Silvestre Villarreal, a guard at the prison at the time of the alleged beating, "got on...
May 24, 2009
CHIP SMEDLEY
West Donegal Township supervisor Roger Snyder is turning to the courts once again to seek damages for what he says are violations of his civil rights.This time, he is taking on the Pennsylvania's State Ethics Commission.Filed last week by Harrisburg attorney Andrew Ostrowski, Snyder's lawsui...
May 22, 2009
ROBYN MEADOWS
A civil rights trial involving four former top city school officials has been postponed to June 29.The accused and the accuser — another former school official — no longer work in the School District of Lancaster.U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pen...
May 20, 2009
JANET KELLEY
A Lancaster County man has been indicted by federal authorities for allegedly making false statements in air-quality reports while working at an alcohol beverage manufacturing plant in Lehigh County.Maurice Lynch, 36, was charged Friday for an offense which allegedly occurred in 2005, according to i...
May 16, 2009
STAFF
Workers place chicken on the pits Saturday for Lancaster Sertoma Club's 56th chicken barbecue at Long's Park. Barbecue chairman Ron Spezialetti said 30,000 chickens were cooked for what is billed as the World's Largest Chicken Barbecue."We were blessed with no rain," Spezialett...
May 14, 2009
CINDY STAUFFER
Sharon Tell was 16 when her family moved to Lancaster, living in a nice, brick home in School Lane Hills.She enrolled at Lancaster Catholic High School, where she worked on the yearbook staff and sang in the choir.The dark-haired girl with the shy smile seemed like a regular teen in 1968. But she sa...
May 12, 2009
JACK BRUBAKER
The number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed against Lancaster County physicians plummeted last year toward a level not seen here since 2003.And no malpractice lawsuits went before Lancaster County juries in 2008.The abrupt drop in malpractice filings and trials brings the county in line with st...
May 12, 2009
JACK BRUBAKER
Former patients have settled nine of 27 medical malpractice cases brought against Dr. Anthony Mauriello, a Lancaster orthopedist.The patients ended their cases in exchange for an unspecified amount paid by the physician's insurance company and an agreement not to reveal details of the settlement...
May 10, 2009
CHIP SMEDLEY
Everyone agrees on one thing: Roger Snyder used a West Donegal Township copying machine to reproduce his campaign literature.After that, all bets are off.That one act has generated a contentious lawsuit, pitted neighbor against neighbor, and brought notoriety to an otherwise quiet community in north...
May 10, 2009
CHIP SMEDLEY
In West Donegal Township they call it "Copygate."It began Nov. 1, 2007, when Supervisor Roger Snyder used a copier in the township's municipal building to run off copies (from 500 to 1,000 — the exact amount is in dispute) of four-color campaign fliers asking voters to re-elect h...
May 07, 2009
SUSAN E. LINDT
Correction — The article below, posted on LancasterOnline Thursday, identified federal court Judge Gene E.K. Pratter as a man. Pratter is a woman.•••A former police officer's sexual harassment lawsuit against Susquehanna Regional Police Department has been upheld, in part, b...
May 06, 2009
TIM MEKEEL
What's a nice mall like you doing in a place like this?In a surprise move, Park City Center recently filed for bankruptcy reorganization.And now that previously unreported decision is being questioned by the firm that services its mortgage loans.ING Clarion Capital opposes the bankruptcy, conten...
May 04, 2009
LORI VAN INGEN
Lancaster resident Al Schreder would love to attend his 60th reunion at his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.But he says he won't be going to South Bend, Ind., on May 17 after all because of the university's choice for its commencement speaker and honorary doctorate — Pres...