2012-05-15 23:08:00
TOM MURSE
The county's top law enforcement official wasn't notified.
Neither was the chairman of the county commissioners.
State lawmakers here?
They, too, were kept in the dark.
The brass of the Pennsylvania state police kept their plan to shutter the Ephrata barracks and s......
2012-05-15 09:43:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police on Tuesday provided updates on two children who were shot in separate incidents earlier this month.
• A 5-year-old girl shot in her home in the first block of Dauphin Street on May 9 was "still in very serious condition," city police Lt. Todd Umstead said.......
2012-05-14 21:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury has heard all the evidence, arguments and testimony regarding convicted killer Jakeem Towles.
Now, it's a matter of life or death.
The same jury that convicted Towles last week of first-degree murder now is deciding if Towles will pay for the killing with h......
2012-05-14 21:58:00
TOM MURSE
Top state police officials said for the first time Monday they intend to keep all special investigative units in Lancaster as part of a massive troop realignment that would strip Troop J of its headquarters status.
The reversal, announced at a joint state House and Senate hearing in Gap, ......
2012-05-11 20:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Defendant Jakeem Towles bowed his head, then lifted it slightly and stared as the jury was led into the courtroom Friday morning.
At 9:05 a.m., the jury foreman announced the decision: guilty of first-degree murder.
Towles blinked once but otherwise remained still while glaring at......
2012-05-10 21:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Was the 2010 killing of hip-hop artist Cornell "Young E-Z" Stewart first-degree murder?
Or was his alleged killer, Jakeem Towles, provoked?
A local jury will continue deliberating over those questions Friday morning.
Lancaster County Judge Howard Knisely dismissed the pane......
2012-05-09 21:21:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Minutes after Jakeem Towles allegedly killed a young hip-hop artist, he wanted to get out of town, according to a witness who testified Wednesday.
A West Hempfield woman said she gave Towles and another man a ride to Lancaster city late on the night of May 7, 2010.
Cornell "Young ......
2012-05-08 10:40:00
CINDY STAUFFER
State and city police leaders, county government officials and state troopers are expected to testify next week before state lawmakers about proposed changes to Pennsylvania state police operations in Lancaster County.
A location and speakers have been chosen for the hearing, to be hosted......
2012-05-08 22:25:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Hip-hop musician John Wright said from the witness stand Tuesday that he did everything he could to get his co-performer and friend out of harm's way on the night of May 7, 2010.
After a fight during a hip-hop concert in Columbia, performers Wright and Cornell Stewart went outside for a b......
2012-05-07 22:21:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Musician Cornell Stewart spent the entire day on May 7, 2010, getting ready for a big performance that night, according to an opening statement Monday during the trial of his alleged killer.
Stewart, a hip-hop artist who used the stage name Young E-Z, even bought new sneakers, specificall......
2012-05-04 21:39:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Looking back, Meredith Penn would have been wise to take the plea deal, his attorney said Friday.
Instead, Penn refused a deal offered in March of 11 to 23 months in jail — then skipped his trial on burglary charges.
A local judge made him pay on Friday: Penn will spend up t......
2012-05-04 22:54:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
When a potentially life-threatening criminal situation arises, Lancaster County's Special Emergency Response Team springs into action.
County Detective James Zahm has been a SERT member since its inception in 1983. Since 1995, he has been the unit's commander.
As such, Zahm, 57, o......
2012-05-03 21:59:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Denver man will stand trial on charges that he sexually abused three preteen girls, a district judge ordered Thursday.
Also Thursday, prosecutors filed 51 new felony counts against Thomas Earl Becker for a collection of child pornography that they say was found at his house.
Bec......
2012-05-02 23:38:00
JENNIFER TODD
Police have accused an East Earl woman of killing an 18-year-old bicyclist in a hit-and-run accident last fall.
Officials allege Svetlana Filipshina, 39, of 255 Good Road, struck Leon Hoover with her minivan on Nov. 25 in the 600 block of Saw Mill Road.
Filipshina initially left t......
2012-05-02 21:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Peter Weida, in handcuffs and ankle shackles, smiled politely at his family Wednesday morning, then quickly took a seat inside the small courtroom.
Ten minutes later, Weida was ordered by a local magistrate to stand trial on charges of attempted homicide and aggravated assault.
We......
2012-04-27 23:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city district judge was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges that she dismissed her own parking tickets.
Kelly S. Ballentine, 44, jotted notes and frequently whispered to her attorney during a two-hour preliminary hearing on a dozen criminal counts.
Ultimately, ret......
2012-04-25 23:02:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The president judge of Lancaster County Court has informed attorneys and other court professionals that he wants fewer delays of criminal cases.
Also, President Judge Joseph Madenspacher, in a memo drafted by him and other county judges, tells attorneys no delays will be granted unless th......
2012-04-24 21:51:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Crime victims might have to wait longer for help to arrive from the state police.
Drug dealers may get less scrutiny.
Volunteer emergency workers may have to cool their heels while they wait for a fire marshal or accident reconstruction team to travel from Berks County to an incid......
2012-04-13 21:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An East Earl Township couple were charged with operating a meth lab from a local trailer park, according to investigators.
Police raided a trailer at 40 Lobin Road on Thursday and found methamphetamine and various supplies used to manufacture the drug.
Also inside were Matthew Hor......
2012-04-12 23:28:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Police charged a Warwick Township man Thursday with drug delivery after he exchanged drugs with another young man, who later died of an overdose from a variety of drugs.
Ryan C. Brubaker, 20, of Lititz, faces charges stemming from the drug exchange in September.
Brubaker is the so......
2012-04-12 21:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man will spend up to 15 years behind bars for a series of attacks on his family over the holidays in 2010.
Patrick Lee Wagner, now 25, broke into two of his relatives' homes and, in another incident, beat his uncle and grandfather, according to court testimony.
In the ......
2012-04-11 22:10:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
More than 70,000 photographs and more than 2,000 videos.
Each one of them, found last year in the East Cocalico home of Jim Price, depicted children in sex acts.
"Are those facts correct?" Lancaster County Judge David Ashworth asked Price, a short, gray-haired man in dark-lens eye......
2012-04-10 21:59:00
JENNIFER TODD
A 2-year-old girl died after she was discovered in a tub of water outside her home in Earl Township on Tuesday.
Investigators said the girl had been playing in the yard with other kids while her mother was inside the house.
When the mother came outside to get the children, she dis......
2012-04-10 21:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man will spend the rest of his life in jail for sexually abusing a preteen girl over a 10-year period.
Charles Bleacher Jr., 55, bought gifts for the girl while he was assaulting her, beginning when she was an infant, according to court testimony.
Lancaster County......
2012-04-09 22:32:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County Prison Warden Vincent Guarini on Monday submitted his letter of retirement to county officials.
Guarini, 64, who has been warden at the county prison since 1981, has 41 years of experience in the corrections field.
"After more than forty years of conscientious and......
2012-04-06 22:06:00
CINDY STAUFFER and LARRY ALEXANDER
A confrontation on a Lancaster city street early Friday ended with two men facing charges after an officer fired his weapon at one of the suspects.
It was the second of two shooting incidents in the city Friday, Lancaster police said. It also was the second city police-involved shooting i......
2012-04-04 22:00:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
There are problem prisoners, and then there is Israel Shampoo Diaz.
Diaz, an inmate at Lancaster County Prison, has taken bad behavior behind bars to a new level, according to officials.
From disrespecting prison staff to other misconduct, Diaz has been an issue since being commit......
2012-04-04 22:19:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
It was a small gathering to call attention to a huge problem.
About 26 people gathered in Binns Park in Lancaster Square on Wednesday to hold a candlelight vigil to honor victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Sponsored by the Lancaster County Campaign Against Sexual Exploitation of C......
2012-04-03 22:04:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday on an updated right-to-know policy.
The proposed policy varies only slightly from the current policy, but there are some changes and additions that formalize current practices not listed anywhere by the county, according to Cr......
2012-04-03 21:54:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County's Crime Prevention Task Force has a new logo that officials hope will give the organization its own identity.
"Elected officials come and go, but this is something we hope will go on forever," said Scott Martin, chairman of the county commissioners. "That's why it's impor......
2012-04-03 21:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A child made a grown man cry Tuesday in Lancaster County Court.
Seven-year-old Lunari Rodriguez spoke stoically of how she slowly recovered from multiple gunshot wounds sustained on Oct. 18.
"I can prove you shot me," Lunari told Rene Ruiz-Mayo, the charged shooter, "from the mark......
2012-04-02 09:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city woman charged with allegedly setting a fire in January that killed her husband will stand trial, a district justice has ordered.
Nancy Helen Clark, 59, is accused of homicide and arson, charges that stem from a Jan. 9 fire at her Olive Street home on Olive Street.
...
2012-03-30 21:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Timothy Lynch committed a variety of criminal offenses last year, including assaults on police officers, death threats against his ex-girlfriend and a high-speed chase with police.
A local judge ordered Friday that Lynch spend at least 5 years in state prison for the seven separate crimin......
2012-03-30 21:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Three daylight robberies in Lancaster city will cost young Spencer Bryant up to 8 years in state prison.
Bryant will spend at least 4 years in prison for the random robberies of three city youths on Jan. 22, 2010.
Bryant, now 20, targeted a pair of Franklin & Marshall College&......
2012-03-29 00:01:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Ripples from the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University have stretched across the state — including here in Lancaster County.
Local prosecutors say more potential sex-abuse victims are coming forward since Sandusky was charged in November.
Awareness of sex abuse is ......
2012-03-27 21:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge raised bail Tuesday on a local teenager charged with stabbing a Lancaster County Day School student with a meat cleaver.
Peter Weida, 19, had been at Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail for attempted homicide and related charges after the Sunday mornin......
2012-03-27 20:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The man who allegedly raised a loaded gun at a Lancaster city police officer Monday afternoon is no stranger to crime and carrying firearms.
Chester "Red" Ober IV, 22, has been in trouble with the law since he turned 18, according to investigators and court records.
A 2008 felony ......
2012-03-22 22:49:00
ELAINE J. JONES
Months of speculation and discord came to a head Wednesday night as Southern Regional police Chief John Fiorill publicly stated that Pequea Township Supervisor Jay Reynolds was the individual responsible for recent accusations of police misconduct.
Fiorill, before a crowd of about 150 peo......
2012-03-22 22:07:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
James Gerald Ashby will spend up to 20 years in prison for robbing the same local convenience store four times.
Ashby, through his attorney, said his motivation for repeatedly robbing a Turkey Hill on Route 41 in Salisbury Township was a drug habit.
"He wanted money," defense lawy......
2012-03-21 21:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Luther Benner admitted to killing his best friend and roommate, Robert Zwally.
But he doesn't remember doing it, his attorney said in court.
Benner, known as "Luke," shot Zwally in the head on June 20, 2010, after an argument inside the Lancaster city home they shared.
The......
2012-03-21 20:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Quarryville man admitted Wednesday to sexually assaulting three local girls for nearly a decade.
James C. Pruitt, 46, is charged with committing rape and forcing other sex acts upon three local girls from 2002 to the end of 2010.
The abuse involved three victims who were between......
2012-03-16 22:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A tragedy like the one that occurred Dec. 30, 2010, was bound to happen to Michael D. Hershey, a local judge told Hershey on Friday.
It was only a matter of time, the judge said.
Hershey, then a car salesman, caused a violent crash during a test-drive that killed a Leola man and s......
2012-03-16 22:01:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Skipping his trial wasn't a smart move by Meredith Penn.
Scheduled to be tried earlier this week on four felonies, Penn instead stayed home, according to officials. He told court personnel that he didn't have a ride, officials said.
The show went on without him, however, and he wa......
2012-03-14 21:39:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Anna Ackerman pleaded no contest Wednesday to charges that she sexually assaulted a "severely intoxicated" boy at her home three years ago — and this time her plea is final.
A judge sentenced Ackerman, 45, to 4 to 10 years in state prison for performing sex acts on the 15-year-old b......
2012-03-14 20:58:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Calvin Monroe Smith potentially faced a mandatory 10-year prison sentence if convicted this week of beating two city women with a wooden beam.
He'll serve less than a year in jail after prosecutors offered a plea deal following the first witness at trial.
Tamara Stoy testified Tue......
2012-03-13 22:38:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Correction March 14, 2012 — Southern Regional police Officer Peter Ondeck received "quite severe" discipline after he failed to get his credentials recertified last year, his chief said. Police Chief John Fiorill declined to specify ......
2012-03-13 20:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Calvin Monroe Smith repeatedly beat a pair of Lancaster city women last year with a 6-foot-long wooden board — no one disputed that in court Tuesday.
Smith, however, claims he only took that action after he was stabbed in the groin.
Smith's trial began Tuesday afternoon on t......
2012-03-10 23:01:00
Jack Brubaker
On a warm September night in 2010, Steven W. Warner held a loaded shotgun to his wife's head. "You're gonna die," he threatened her. "I have a bullet with your name on it." That's what Kimberly Warner told an investigating Warwick Township police officer. The officer charged her husband......
2012-03-10 23:01:00
Chip Smedley
The backlog of criminal cases in Lancaster County begins at the magisterial district justice level. State law says a preliminary hearing must be scheduled between three and 10 days after a defendant's initial arraignment. The hearing must be attended by an assistant district attorney, the de......
2012-03-10 23:00:00
Jack Brubaker
Christopher Dubois drove his gray Chevrolet to a Clay Township trailer park. There, according to police, Dubois tried to run down a young woman and her child and then aimed his car at a responding police cruiser. Since the day police charged Dubois with aggravated assault for these offe......
2012-03-09 22:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man was ordered to jail this week for collecting workers' compensation benefits while he worked full-time as a mechanic.
David Kyle Good, 46, will serve 2 to 23 months in prison, followed by two years on probation, after a jury convicted him Wednesday of three felony charges....
2012-03-08 22:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Correction March 9, 2012 — An earlier headline for this article misstated the location of the death of a teenager involved in a drinking party. The teenager died at a hospital and not at the home where the party was held.
...
2012-03-08 22:27:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury convicted a 28-year-old man of voluntary manslaughter for the 2009 stabbing death of Chrishon Johnson-Gray.
Sequoyah Hawkins, 28, showed no reaction when the jury returned its verdict about 5 p.m., after five hours of deliberation.
Voluntary manslaughter is......
2012-03-06 21:37:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County woman waited 28 years for this day, the day her attacker finally was brought to justice.
She still remembers the night in 1984 when a man entered her home and sexually assaulted her.
"I was fearful for many years," she said in court Monday.
She was fearf......
2012-03-06 21:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Chrishon Johnson-Gray was badly hurt — everyone on the busy Lancaster city block that summer day could see that much.
Johnson-Gray, stabbed in the neck, had fallen headfirst onto the middle of Marietta Avenue.
One police officer later described the blood pooled around Johnso......
2012-03-05 21:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Lancaster County jurors watched the killing of a man on a city street while sitting in a courtroom Monday afternoon.
A video recording of the Aug. 24, 2009, stabbing of 20-year-old Chrishon Johnson-Gray on Marietta Avenue was shown to the jurors, who will decide the fate of Sequoyah Hawki......
2012-03-01 22:54:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man will serve up to 60 years in state prison for "preying" on three local girls, sexually assaulting two and attempting to assault the other.
Lancaster County Judge James Cullen said that Timothy D. Anderson is too dangerous to release back into society, and he ordered a......
2012-03-01 22:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A large panel of local residents is being meticulously questioned this week inside a Lancaster County courtroom.
Fourteen of them will be chosen to hear the case of a man charged with killing 20-year-old Chrishon Johnson-Gray.
Jury selection began Thursday morning in the homicide ......
2012-03-01 10:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Dwan Massey, by all accounts, feared for his safety when a man came looking for him with a baseball bat in 2009.
He crossed the line when he retrieved a shotgun and pulled the trigger.
Massey was ordered to jail Wednesday for shooting a man on a sidewalk outside a Lancaster city h......
2012-02-29 21:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on more than a dozen charges for allegedly preying on local girls with his cellphone.
Eddison Abreu, 19, is charged with contacting at least four girls at random, asking for sexual favors and making other lewd remarks.
He also s......
2012-02-28 23:09:00
TOM KNAPP
For the second time in as many months, charges have been filed against a Lancaster County Prison inmate for drugs smuggled inside prison walls.
Prison officials, along with the Lancaster County Drug Task Force, arrested an inmate and his sister on Monday for bringing contraband into the p......
2012-02-28 22:58:00
TOM MURSE
Jason Macchioni was standing on an overpass near Elizabethtown, taking his final pictures of nighttime traffic on Route 283 when the first police officer pulled up.
"Why are you taking pictures of cars?" asked the Northwest Regional Police Department officer.
Macchioni, a 25-year-......
2012-02-28 20:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Gabriel Salvador-Rodriguez will spend up to 20 years in state prison for shooting a Lancaster city teenager in the face last year.
A local judge told Salvador-Rodriguez he's lucky it's not longer.
Salvador-Rodriguez shot the teen during a botched robbery on June 15 inside a car on......
2012-02-27 23:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Robert Baker believed he could have defended himself in court against charges that he helped kill Ray Diener in 2007.
His attorneys, however, disagreed, according to court testimony on Monday.
Baker, one of four men serving prison sentences stemming from the killing of the 65-year......
2012-02-27 23:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Offenders like Juanita Robertson are the reason the state's welfare system has a bad reputation, a local judge said Monday morning.
For two years, Robertson collected welfare benefits while hiding the fact that she lived with a man who earned an income, according to testimony.
Rob......
2012-02-22 21:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lititz man will spend at least six years in state prison for beating his infant daughter, causing a skull fracture and brain injuries.
Eric M. Ortega said he is shocked at his own behavior, which likely caused the child permanent damage, according to court testimony.
"I still ca......
2012-02-21 22:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Denver teenager shuddered and cried Tuesday when he was ordered to prison for a widespread vandalism "rampage" in 2010.
Rickey Earl Batz was the last of what prosecutors deemed the "BB Gun Bandits" to be sentenced for a shooting spree across eight municipalities here.
He fidgete......
2012-02-17 14:58:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former assistant principal of Lancaster Mennonite High School is headed to trial on allegations that he sexually assaulted three students.
Steven J. Geyer, 56, was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Friday on 11 charges of sex abuse. Instead, he waived the hearing ahead of time and......
2012-02-16 20:51:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
David Lutz was the "leader" of a widespread vandalism spree in 2010 that caused about $38,000 in damages here, according to court testimony Thursday.
For that reason, county Judge Louis Farina said, Lutz will be punished more severely than the teenagers who were along for the ride.
...
2012-02-13 22:50:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city district judge has been removed from the bench after she was charged Monday with a dozen criminal offenses.
The charges stem from District Judge Kelly S. Ballentine's dismissal last year of three tickets issued to her by a city police officer, according to a police affida......
2012-02-13 21:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Drug addiction has turned a former three-sport high school athlete into a state prisoner, according to testimony in Lancaster County court.
Just a few years ago, Marc Andrews starred in football, baseball and wrestling at Ephrata High School, his attorney said in court.
Andrews no......
2012-02-13 20:43:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two Columbia women are headed to trial after being accused of attacking an elderly woman during a robbery outside a local grocery store.
Amanda Place and Amanda Kinnard both waived preliminary hearings on multiple charges, including felony robbery, for the Jan. 10 crime.
Kinnard, ......
2012-02-10 20:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
James Feaster Jr. was an Eagle Scout and a college graduate with a flawless work history.
But Feaster's "curiosity," as his attorney called it, has cost him his freedom.
Feaster was jailed Friday for having a collection of child pornography and sharing some of those files via onli......
2012-02-09 23:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman calls it the "resign-and-hide" technique.
And he told lawmakers at the state Capitol this week about how some local educators have used it.
Stedman was in Harrisburg Wednesday to support Senate Bill 1381 — legislation requirin......
2012-02-09 21:30:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A man who fled to New York after killing a man here in 1999 was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison Thursday after accepting a plea deal.
James Malave won't have to begin serving his sentence for at least the next six years because he's already serving a 10-year minimum sentence i......
2012-02-08 21:37:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Clarification Feb. 9, 2011 — Jay Brubaker, an inmate charged with bringing drugs into Lancaster County Prison, was committed to jail after Ephrata police filed charges last month. However, Ephrata police officers did not transport Br......
2012-02-06 20:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Gordonville woman has admitted to hoarding dogs at her home, including many that weren't licensed or vaccinated.
Barbara E. Dienner, 49, agreed to pay a $1,150 fine and will surrender all but five of her dogs, according to a court order.
She pleaded guilty to 37 counts in all, r......
2012-02-03 22:09:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The shooting death of a Lancaster County man at his grandparents' Allentown home last March has been ruled accidental.
According to information released Friday by Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin and Lehigh County Coroner Scott M. Grim, Cody C. Scheetz, 20, of 312 S. 34th S......
2012-02-02 21:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
So, what do child pornography users charged here look like?
Thinking tattered T's and torn jeans? Try neck ties and college degrees.
As the number of charged child porn collectors climbs, investigators are learning more about their profiles — and how dangerous they are.
......
2012-02-02 21:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former employee at a local magistrate's office is headed to trial for allegedly ordering the arrest of an innocent woman.
District Judge Bruce Roth ordered Alicia Montano to trial on a misdemeanor charge of official oppression after she waived a preliminary hearing Thursday.
Mon......
2012-02-01 21:39:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Elizabethtown police said they raided a borough business on Wednesday, arresting the store owner and an employee and charging them with sales of designer drugs, in some cases in exchange for "food stamps."
Police said that CR's Friendly Market, 550 E. High St., was selling synthetic marij......
2012-01-31 21:38:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local judge took a "chance" Tuesday on a young woman who bit off another woman's ear in a 2010 attack.
Luz Sanchez was spared a lengthy state prison sentence — which state guidelines suggested — and ordered to spend 1 to 2 years in county prison.
"I know I'm taking a......
2012-01-31 21:24:00
TOM MURSE
The unsolved 1999 death of a former Lancaster County pastor's first wife has been classified as a homicide as the ex-minister awaits trial on charges of murdering his second wife, authorities said Tuesday.
A deputy Dauphin County coroner amended Jewel Schirmer's manner of death from "unde......
2012-01-31 20:22:00
RYAN ROBINSON
An Ephrata Borough man has been charged with 98 counts of sexual abuse of children, police said.
James A. Brown, 35, of 158 Heatherwood Drive, had child pornography on his home computers, police said.
Brown was charged after he shared a photo online of a nude child with Ephrata po......
2012-01-27 21:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Brandon Eakman kept the largest collection of child pornography ever prosecuted in Lancaster County Court, according to testimony Friday at his sentencing.
He possessed more than 13,000 photos and videos on personal computers and zip drives, according to testimony.
The collection ......
2012-01-26 22:32:00
JENNIFER TODD
A West Hempfield Township woman has been charged with giving a narcotic to a teenage acquaintance who then died after taking the drug, police said.
Investigators say Michelle L. Bachman, 44, provided the pain drug Fentanyl to 18-year-old Christina Albright prior to Albright's death in Jun......
2012-01-26 22:07:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local high school freshman trembled Thursday at the sight of Michael Archacki.
The 14-year-old girl's voice quivered and she cried while describing how Archacki, a former Chester County police officer and fireman, fondled and raped her last summer.
The girl said she was spending......
2012-01-25 22:25:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The Fulton Bar — recently called a nuisance by neighbors and city officials — will not reopen under current ownership.
The bar's owners, Harold and Patricia Gribbin, have reached an agreement with the city to place their liquor license in escrow, officials said Wednesday.
......
2012-01-24 21:18:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A man who beat a 2010 rape conviction on a technicality was sentenced after a retrial to 30 to 60 years in state prison on Friday.
Anthony James Johnson, 29, had been offered a plea deal prior to the retrial that would have resulted in a 6-to-12-year sentence, but he refused.
A ju......
2012-01-23 22:57:00
BRIAN WALLACE
When Veronica Gladden came home from work Jan. 11, she was shocked to learn from her son what had happened at school that day.
Tarshon, a 12-year-old seventh-grader, was called to the office at Reynolds Middle School and interviewed by a detective investigating allegations that a teacher ......
2012-01-20 22:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterward," Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright said in court Thursday, quoting Theodore Roosevelt.
And with those words began the very first session of Lancaster County Veterans Court, ......
2012-01-19 09:46:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
"Blind drunkenness" caused Orlando Johnson to break into his neighbor's house last year and sexually assault her, his attorney said in court.
"This whole criminal episode was a direct result of that," attorney Christopher Tallarico said Wednesday at Johnson's sentencing.
Lancaster......
2012-01-18 20:45:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local man with a history of sex offenses and other crimes is headed back to state prison for yet another lewd behavior.
A local judge ordered the maximum allowable sentence Tuesday against Richard D. Owen, sending him upstate for 1 to 2 years.
Owen, 55, of Manheim, was on probat......
2012-01-18 19:57:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A jailhouse conversation about murder will cost a Lancaster city man up to 12 years in state prison, a judge ordered on Wednesday.
Steven Ingram will spend at least six years in state prison for offering his former cellmate $10,000 to kill his ex-boyfriend's new companion.
Ingram,......
2012-01-17 22:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Michael D. Hershey exhaled, then closed his eyes Tuesday when a local judge explained how his actions in 2010 caused the death of a Leola man.
Hershey, a car salesman, was driving under the influence when he took a pair of customers on a test drive on Dec. 30, 2010, the judge explained....
2012-01-17 20:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Torrie Gochnauer told a judge Tuesday that, with the proper therapy, he never would have produced the child pornography that was found on his computer in 2010.
"I could have been such a much better person if I'd have just gotten help a long time ago," Gochnauer told Lancaster County Presi......
2012-01-12 21:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local attorney already guilty of felony fraud could be facing further penalty after he showed up in a Lancaster County courtroom on Wednesday.
Herbert "Hesh" Henderson II has been suspended from practicing law since October when he failed to pay his annual legal dues.
He missed ......
2012-01-10 22:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The mother of a local boy who was allegedly sexually abused in 2006 might have cost her child a chance at justice Tuesday when she testified during the suspect's trial.
A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the case of Daniel Work Jr., a Lancaster man accused of raping and assaulting the 5-y......
2012-01-06 22:21:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An officer's failure to renew his police credentials will result in overturned convictions, dropped charges and returned fines in more than 100 cases, officials said this week.
Peter "P.J." Ondeck, a Southern Regional police officer, didn't recertify his credentials under Act 120, which p......
2012-01-06 20:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Twenty minutes.
That's all it took for a local jury to convict Santos Rodriguez of stabbing a man during a robbery outside a Lancaster city restaurant in 2010.
Rodriguez, already convicted of killing a man here 15 years ago, is now facing a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced......
2012-01-06 15:53:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Officials at Hempfield and Penn Manor school districts are disciplining students in the wake of separate incidents involving dangerous behavior and alleged sexual activity on school buses.
Penn Manor has disciplined three Marticville Middle School students for running and screaming and ju......
2012-01-05 21:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local car salesman is expected to plead guilty this month to homicide in connection with a high-speed test drive that killed a customer in 2010, according to prosecutors.
Michael D. Hershey, the car salesman, had alcohol and marijuana in his system when he got behind the wheel of a Mits......
2012-01-03 23:14:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County's three newly re-elected commissioners were sworn in for their second terms Tuesday morning.
In the afternoon, Republican commissioner Scott Martin was chosen to continue serving as the board's chairman.
"It's been a very challenging four years, but I must say I'm......
2012-01-03 22:20:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two defendants charged in a widespread vandalism spree here admitted Tuesday to taking part in the 2010 crimes.
David Lutz, 51, and Rickey Earl Batz, 19, both pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the two-day spree that caused nearly $40,000 in damages to properties in northern Lan......
2011-12-30 21:13:00
RYAN ROBINSON
This year was one of the least deadly on Lancaster County roads in the past 15 years, records show.
Fifty-one people were killed in 48 traffic accidents in 2011, Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Todd Brown said, a drop from the 66 people killed in 58 wrecks here last year. The......
2011-12-29 15:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Three lives were taken here this year in domestic violence confrontations between men and women — the leading motive for local homicides.
In all, police have investigated nine homicides in Lancaster County over the past 12 months.
That number jumped from the six homicides he......
2011-12-22 22:34:00
TOM KNAPP
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty for a man convicted of killing an Elizabethtown businessman in 2007.
A jury convicted Abraham Sanchez Jr. in March 2009 of shooting Ray Diener on the victim's doorstep.
The jurors subsequently sentenced Sanchez, who was......
2011-12-22 22:20:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Elizabethtown Area School District's athletic director resigned this week to spend more time with his family, not because of any improprieties, according to the district.
Shane Piper, who served as AD and dean of students at the high school, resigned for personal reasons Monday, district ......
2011-12-17 23:14:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
The nadir came earlier this year, when several of the high-tech surveillance cameras deployed around the City of Lancaster were in need of repair — and the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition didn't have the money to get them fixed.
And so for weeks, said CSC managing director Wes ......
2011-12-15 22:34:00
TOM MURSE
A few political notes, quotes and anecdotes this week:
New 16th District
U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan's obscenely gerrymandered 7th Congressional District, which cuts across southeastern Pennsylvania and deep into Lancaster County, would make the "Pen......
2011-12-09 21:45:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former Chester County police officer has been charged — for the fourth time this year — with sexually assaulting a child here.
The latest allegations are from a fourth separate victim, officials said.
Michael A. Archacki, already jailed at Lancaster County Prison for......
2011-12-08 23:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man has been charged as an adult for committing a felony sex crime when he was a minor.
Angel Montanez, now 23, is at Lancaster County Prison on charges that he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy about six years ago.
Montanez, of 13 Conestoga St., would have been......
2011-12-06 22:18:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man charged with stealing a police horse last month waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
That means Adam Schulz will either face trial or plead guilty to a felony theft charge for stealing "Charlie" on Nov. 7.
Schulz, a veteran, is hoping to resolve the case in M......
2011-12-06 22:00:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city mother testified Tuesday that she heard gunshots on the night of Oct. 18 but had no idea her daughter had been hit.
Then she heard her scream.
"Mommy, no!" the 7-year-old yelled, according to the mother's testimony. "I don't want to die! I'm too young to die!"......
2011-12-05 22:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It appears John Hall Jr. did the right thing, after all — for the most part.
False imprisonment charges were dropped Monday against Hall, an Ephrata man who made a citizen's arrest over the summer.
Hall had been charged with the misdemeanor — which carried a potential ......
2011-12-05 21:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Ephrata resident Jim Price was charged in September with having a sexual relationship with a preteen girl.
But, apparently, Price was keeping another big secret, police said Monday.
Detectives discovered that Price kept what is believed to be the largest collection of child pornog......
2011-12-01 21:56:00
JENNIFER TODD
Michael Gutekunst lived in a middle-class neighborhood, didn't drive an expensive car and apparently lived a pretty modest life.
He allegedly supported that life, however, by burglarizing dozens of homes during the past two years.
On Wednesday, Gutekunst, 38, was charged with carr......
2011-12-01 21:33:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The Lancaster City-County CrimeStoppers tip line is going high tech.
As of Thursday, anonymous crime tips can be sent via Text Tips, a text-messages program through TIP411, a St. Paul, Minn.-based company.
"It is the hope of CrimeStoppers that by implementing the Text Tips program......
2011-11-29 22:20:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Ronald Gleim, while proclaiming his innocence in court, was sentenced Tuesday to up to 15 years in prison for beating his baby girl last year.
Gleim, convicted in September of causing brain damage to his infant daughter, told a local judge the jury got it wrong.
"Your honor, I did......
2011-11-28 22:39:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The Lancaster County district attorney has cleared city police of any wrongdoing related to the October suicide of an inmate at the police station.
Prisoner Madou Bathily, 24, hanged himself in a police station holding cell on Oct. 25, according to officials.
Bathily, of West King......
2011-11-28 20:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Several things were stolen from Hillary Davis when an armed intruder broke into her Lancaster city home last year.
The most important things weren't material, Davis told a local judge Monday.
"I was robbed of my peace. I was robbed of feeling stable and secure," a tearful Davis sa......
2011-11-22 15:25:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Nine minutes is all it took for Sammy Nazmy to rob a pair of local women at random last year.
It will cost him 3 1/2 to 7 years in state prison, a judge ordered on Tuesday.
Nazmy said he wasn't in "the right mind" when he robbed the women, telling one victim he had a gun and physi......
2011-11-21 13:22:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Courtney Adams got his first huge break in January, when he fired a high-powered rifle at his wife and his best friend during an alcohol-fueled tirade but missed both of them by inches.
The Paradise man got his second big break Monday, when a judge gave him probation instead of a prison s......
2011-11-18 15:08:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Manheim man is facing prison after a jury convicted him of several sex crimes against a preteen girl.
Darcy Gorron, 32, assaulted the girl on multiple occasions during an 18-month period between 2009 and this year, the jury found.
Gorron touched the girl and made her touch him, ......
2011-11-17 21:16:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local crack cocaine dealer with a reputation for carrying guns will be off the streets for more than 15 years.
A federal judge sentenced Anselmo "Boo Boo" Rivera to 15 1/2 years in a federal prison, followed by eight years of parole, for dealing crack cocaine here.
Rivera, 27, w......
2011-11-16 23:54:00
DAN NEPHIN
Take away "Penn State" and "football" and, at its basic level, the sexual abuse state prosecutors say was perpetrated in State College is all too common.
"We deal with children and adults who are survivors of sexual assault on a daily basis, so all of a sudden something happens at a major......
2011-11-16 21:46:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The alleged killers of a mother of four will face the death penalty.
Prosecutors have filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty against the trio of city men charged in the April 16 shooting of Diana Spencer in Lancaster.
Spencer, 33, was shot through the front door of 26 Ol......
2011-11-16 21:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The Lancaster man thought he had made arrangements to have sex with a woman he met last year at a city bar, police allege.
Instead, according to testimony, the man was being set up by a prostitute and her pimp.
He was baited outside of the bar, then stabbed and robbed, according t......
2011-11-15 21:09:00
TOM MURSE
The state attorney general's office has cleared the police officers who last year shocked an unarmed Mount Joy man at least twice with Tasers and hit him with pepper spray 90 minutes before he suffered an abnormal heartbeat and died.
A spokesman for the agency said there was no evidence o......
2011-11-14 20:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Daniel Tedesco didn't rape a Lancaster woman after a night of drinking in the city four years ago, according to a jury's verdict.
But he did sexually assault the woman, the jury found.
Tedesco, 44, gasped as the jury announced the split verdicts Monday morning. He shook his head a......
2011-11-14 11:39:00
CINDY STAUFFER
No criminal charges will be brought in connection with the crash that killed four Manheim teenagers earlier this year, the Lebanon County district attorney announced Monday.
Prosecutors had been investigating the Jan. 16 crash, which happened when the teens were driving at a high rate of ......
2011-11-10 23:09:00
DAVID O'CONNOR
They noticed that the law books always turned up missing after one man had left the library.
And when he returned on Wednesday, staff members at the Lancaster County Law Library, on the fourth floor of the county courthouse, were ready.
When he left the library at about 4 p.m. Wed......
2011-11-10 20:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Was it just a night of drunken, consensual sex?
Or did Daniel Tedesco violate a Lancaster Township woman without her say-so?
A local jury is having a tough time deciding.
After more than six hours of deliberation, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday the panel was dismissed until Monday ......
2011-11-09 22:54:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It took a local jury little more than an hour to decide prisoner Steven Ingram wasn't joking when he asked his cellmate to kill his boyfriend's new beau.
The panel returned guilty verdicts Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. to two first-degree felony counts of criminal solicitation.
Ingram, n......
2011-11-09 21:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man is facing life in prison after he was convicted Wednesday of breaking into a Franklin & Marshall College professor's home.
The Jan. 18 burglary at Alexis Castor's former home on North Mary Street was the third time Terry Lighty had been convicted of a violent crim......
2011-11-09 00:52:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster County commissioners Scott Martin, Dennis Stuckey and Craig Lehman easily won second terms Tuesday in an election that lacked both voter interest and any hint of the drama or mudslinging that marked contests earlier this decade.
The two Republicans and one Democrat, who ......
2011-11-08 20:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Prisoner Steven Ingram was just talking big when he offered his cellmate $1,000 to kill his boyfriend's new lover, Ingram's attorney argued in court Tuesday.
But police say Ingram wasn't joking.
"It wasn't simply a request that was made," prosecutor Mark Fetterman said in an openi......
2011-11-07 22:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Steven Ingram wanted his boyfriend's new lover dead.
And, according to police, he told his cellmate at Lancaster County Prison that he had the money to make it happen.
Ingram is on trial this week for allegedly offering that cellmate $10,000 to carry out the "hit."
Ingram ......
2011-11-07 21:32:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The murder of a Manheim Township family will be the topic of a cable television show called "Unusual Suspects" on the Investigation Discovery network.
A crew from the show will be in Lancaster County this week interviewing law enforcement officials who worked on the case involving the 200......
2011-11-04 22:05:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
John C. Lewis Jr. will spend up to 46 years in state prison for a pattern of horrific abuse against his wife.
Lewis, 50, initially was charged in January 2010 with seriously burning the woman with a homemade blowtorch.
She spent weeks in the hospital and still has visible scars, a......
2011-11-03 22:27:00
TOM MURSE
A candidate for Manor Township supervisor has a pair of felony convictions on his record for emptying his grandmother's bank account without her knowledge, causing her to lose her home, according to court records.
Democrat Chad A. George, 37, has been running a spirited campaign desp......
2011-11-02 21:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A young Lancaster city man was paroled Monday after serving nine months in prison for a series of random street robberies last year.
Danzel Washington avoided a lengthy state prison term, according to court statements, because he testified against a pair of men who also were charged in th......
2011-11-02 16:12:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Manheim man will serve up to 25 years in state prison for sexually assaulting two pre-teen girls.
Lancaster County Judge Margaret Miller ordered a sentence of 10 3/4 to 25 years against Douglas Bogle for multiple rapes of one girl and improper contact with another.
The girls, wh......
2011-10-26 21:16:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An Ephrata man was jailed Wednesday for what a prosecutor called the "barbaric" killing of his roommate's cat.
Jefferson Miller, 34, was ordered to jail for 2 to 23 months, followed by two years of probation for the Dec. 9, 2010, crime.
Miller slashed the throat of his roommate's ......
2011-10-26 20:34:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Correction Oct. 27, 2011 — In an earlier version of the story below, Ronald A. Snyder Jr., an inmate who committed suicide Sept. 28 at Lancaster County Prison, was identified with an incorrect middle initial.
...
2011-10-25 22:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Michael Scott Wissler called his 2008 cross-county church burglary spree "inexcusable."
Lancaster County President Judge Joseph Madenspacher agreed. He said Wissler's spree of church burglaries was "mind-boggling."
"In 63 days, you committed 44 burglaries," Madenspacher said. "If ......
2011-10-25 21:36:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Donte Johnson testified Tuesday that he had never had any problems with Bobby Traynum — until July 18.
On that night, Johnson said in court, Traynum stabbed him repeatedly over a $5 bet on a video game.
After that testimony at a preliminary hearing, a local magistrate ordere......
2011-10-24 23:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Correction Oct. 26, 2011 — East Cocalico Township police didn't file charges against Zane Robinson immediately after he allegedly confessed crimes to a resident. Police investigated for two months after the alleged confession, then f......
2011-10-24 22:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lititz woman's seventh drunken-driving charge will cost her at least nine months in prison, according to a judge's order.
Lisa Lee Botzum, 41, also was sentenced Monday for violating probation this summer by having cocaine in her system during a random drug test.
For all those o......
2011-10-21 23:22:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Thirty-eight down, about 50 to go.
That's the status so far of a crackdown on area drug dealers that officials are calling the largest here in recent memory.
Through wiretaps and other tactics, police have filed warrants for nearly 100 alleged dealers, most in Lancaster city.
......
2011-10-21 19:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted rapist Warren D. Jackson will not be tried for attempting to rape another woman in Lancaster city.
At least not anytime soon, a local judge has ordered.
Lancaster County President Judge Joseph Madenspacher ruled Thursday that Jackson is too mentally ill to stand trial....
2011-10-20 22:42:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Discontent over the leadership at Lancaster County Prison has been simmering in the wake of three inmate suicides in six months.
It erupted Thursday at a county prison board meeting when a citizens' group and an activist publicly called for the dismissal of prison Warden Vincent Guarini....
2011-10-20 10:04:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge decided 10 months was enough for nearly $40,000 in damage.
That's how long 20-year-old Tyler Kuster spent in jail for a three-day vandalism spree last year across six local municipalities.
Kuster and two other men randomly shot buildings and property with ......
2011-10-19 21:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Former fugitive Dwayne Weir Sr. isn't going anywhere soon.
Weir, who led police on a two-week manhunt this summer, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on several charges relating to what a local magistrate called a "stealthy" escape.
That means Weir, 42, will remain at Lancaster ......
2011-10-19 14:45:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
At 20 years old, Brandon Apostolec has spent nearly half of his life as an accused criminal.
A Lancaster County judge said that's why he'll spend at least the next 11 years behind bars.
Apostolec could serve up to 27 years in state prison, the judge ordered, for a series of house ......
2011-10-18 22:53:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Matthew Becker will face the death penalty when he is tried for allegedly killing his pregnant girlfriend, investigators said.
Prosecutors on Tuesday filed a notice to seek the death penalty, citing multiple aggravating circumstances in the Aug. 12 homicide of Allison Marie Walsh and her ......
2011-10-13 16:15:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Because it was a Sunday, Martin Schenker figured nobody would be inside the Lancaster County homes belonging to members of Plain sects.
That's why he chose that day to break into their homes, according to testimony in Lancaster County Court Thursday.
The homeowners were all away a......
2011-10-13 15:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Young Davon Wright had it all last fall.
He was a local college student on scholarship with a steady income from a part-time job.
Until he decided to join some friends and prey on a Lancaster city man for "pure sport," as a prosecutor called it.
"You had everything going f......
2011-10-12 21:50:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Michael Raffensberger Jr. gave the girl booze and drugs, it was said in court Wednesday.
Then, he sexually assaulted her, while taking photos with his cell phone camera.
For those crimes, a judge ordered, Raffensberger will spend up to 10 years in state prison.
Raffensberg......
2011-10-12 21:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former Chester County police officer was ordered Wednesday to stand trial here for alleged sex assaults against three preteen girls.
Michael A. Archacki, locked up at Lancaster County Prison on $900,000 bail, likely will go to trial next year on numerous sex crimes that allegedly occurr......
2011-10-11 22:36:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Matthew Becker admitted pointing a gun at his pregnant girlfriend on the night she died.
Becker's attorney, however, claimed in Lancaster County Court Tuesday that a bullet was accidentally fired into Allison Walsh's head.
Walsh, 21, and her unborn baby girl died on Aug. 12 at Bec......
2011-09-29 21:51:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Four months after being captured in New York, Kenneth Peralta is headed to trial, accused of shooting a local Weis Markets employee who tried to thwart a theft.
Peralta waived a preliminary hearing Thursday morning, and his case was ordered to trial.
That likely will take place ne......
2011-09-29 20:51:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It's hard to imagine offenses more "wretched" than those committed by Barry Lee Rhodes, a local judge said Thursday.
And for those crimes — multiple rapes of preteen sisters — the judge told Rhodes he likely will spend the rest of his life in prison.
"You'll never have......
2011-09-27 21:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local father of two young kids was jailed Tuesday for trading child pornography and sending some of the images to a teenage girl.
Daniel Arndt will serve 6 to 23 months in prison, followed by 5 years on probation, according to a judge's order.
Arndt, 32, posed as a teenage girl ......
2011-09-26 21:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Animal cruelty charges against a Columbia horse stable owner were dismissed Monday morning in Lancaster County court.
The local Humane League had charged Joseph Meyer with failure to provide his sick mare, Dusty, the proper medical care.
On Monday, however, County Judge Howard Kni......
2011-09-23 21:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Stealing a six-pack of beer will cost Richard Decker Jr. more than six years in state prison, according to a judge's order.
Had Decker not pulled a gun on bar employees who tried to get the beer back, it would have been nothing more than retail theft.
Instead, Decker, 23, wasn't w......
2011-09-22 22:29:00
BERNARD HARRIS
A witness told Lancaster city police he heard an engine accelerate sharply as a gold Chrysler pulled from a curb in the 200 block of West Vine Street late Sunday afternoon.
When the witness heard a "thump," he turned to see a man believed to be Andres Daniel Lopez get out of the car and w......
2011-09-22 21:27:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge told a young city man Thursday that he is down to his last chance.
At age 20, Antonio Dejesus already has a long list of crimes to his credit, Judge Howard Knisely said.
His latest, an armed home-invasion robbery, was "almost the most serious offense you c......
2011-09-22 15:21:00
CINDY STAUFFER
There are more questions than answers about the unusual death of Matthew Bleistein, a man who lived in an East Hempfield Township apartment but died dangling by his waist over a Massachusetts river.
"It still boggles me," said his brother, Steve Bleistein, with whom Matthew Bleistein live......
2011-09-21 22:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Prosecutors say Columbia stable owner Joseph Meyer denied his dying horse medical attention, so they charged him last summer with animal cruelty after Dusty was euthanized.
But Meyer claimed in court Wednesday that his treatment of Dusty was good enough.
A Lancaster County judge w......
2011-09-21 21:58:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
After five years of allegedly taking money while working for a Lancaster city magistrate, Michelle G. Mellinger is hoping for speedy prosecution.
She turned herself in this week on felony theft charges and intends to plead guilty, according to her attorney.
Also, attorney Cory Mil......
2011-09-21 21:01:00
JENNIFER TODD
Reading police were justified when they shot a Reinholds man last month, Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams announced Wednesday.
Adams said the ruling was largely based on a review of a state police investigation of the incident, along with statements from witnesses and officers......
2011-09-20 22:19:00
JENNIFER TODD
Lancaster police said Tuesday they had found the driver and the vehicle involved in Sunday's fatal hit-and-run.
Police did not immediately release the name of the driver.
"No charges have been filed at this point, which is why we are withholding the driver's name at this time," Sg......
2011-09-15 23:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Banned, but not gone or forgotten.
That's how local law enforcers describe toxic synthetic drugs that send users on berserk binges that sometimes end in prison cells or hospital rooms.
The substances' viral popularity prompted Gov. Tom Corbett to sign a statewide ban that went int......
2011-09-14 21:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Michael Scott Wissler targeted local churches, salons, medical offices and other businesses after-hours during a three-month spree of burglaries in 2008.
On Wednesday, he admitted to pulling 44 jobs in all — including about 30 at area churches.
The tally for the stolen goods......
2011-09-13 21:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted child abuser is behind bars after a local jury found that he severely beat his baby daughter last year in Lancaster city.
The baby girl, who was five months old, sustained head trauma after a beating last June inside a St. Joseph Street home. The girl also was beaten over a pe......
2011-09-09 21:27:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It took a jury less than an hour Friday to convict Anthony James Johnson of raping two pre-teenagers in 2003.
Johnson, dressed in a gray suit, nodded slightly and stroked his nose when the jury foreman announced the verdicts at 3:30 p.m. — guilty on three felony charges of sexual as......
2011-09-02 22:39:00
CINDY STAUFFER and TOM MURSE
R. Tommy Stanley Jr. died at Hospice of Lancaster County in March.
But the 40-year-old father of two from Cochranville wasn't the victim of a terminal disease, rather, an assault that happened in a Chester County parking lot on the evening of Valentine's Day, police said.
Lancaste......
2011-09-01 23:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
For months last year, Martin Schenker committed daytime burglaries in Lancaster and Chester counties, swiping guns, tools and cash.
He targeted more than 50 homes in the counties, including more than a dozen here, investigators said.
On Thursday, the 24-year-old Schenker admitted ......
2011-08-31 21:38:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Despite urgings from leaders of a local Amish community, Melvin Glick was jailed on Wednesday for having a three-year sexual relationship with a young girl.
Glick, 32, received a large show of support from his community after he was charged last year with sexually assaulting the girl abou......
2011-08-29 22:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A retired state trooper accused of pointing a gun at the driver of a horse-drawn buggy will be one of the first candidates for a Lancaster County Veteran's Court.
Michael L. McHenry, 70, waived a preliminary hearing Monday morning while informing the district judge of his intention to app......
2011-08-26 21:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Steven Bregger didn't like the way his partner, John Freeman, was driving the tractor-trailer during a June route through Lancaster County.
So he spoke up, according to testimony Friday at a preliminary hearing.
"It was pretty rude the way he was driving," Bregger recalled. "When ......
2011-08-25 22:06:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man is going to trial, charged with strangling a woman last month inside his city apartment.
Pablo Ansurez Sanchez was ordered to stand trial on homicide charges after he waived a preliminary hearing Thursday before District Judge Bruce Roth.
Sanchez, 26, is charged wi......
2011-08-25 21:47:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A man was paroled this week after pleading no contest to causing his infant daughter's skull fracture during a domestic dispute last year in East Hempfield Township.
However, Antonio Wessells remains in a custody battle over that little girl and his three other children, it was said in co......
2011-08-22 23:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Matthew Scott Becker spent the weekend in an observation cell at Lancaster County Prison, where he has been calm and compliant, according to the warden.
His recent behavior is a drastic departure from what police allege he exhibited 11 days ago when he killed his pregnant girlfriend in Ma......
2011-08-22 21:03:00
TIM MEKEEL
An Equipment Finance Inc. defendant has a new attorney who wants to delay his client's October trial.
Alabama businessman Harold W. Young hired the attorney after a federal prosecutor accused his previous attorney of a conflict of interest.
The new attorney, Christopher S. Linton ......
2011-08-22 20:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Joy O'Shea Woomer will stay behind bars for killing a local cerebral palsy patient in 2002 with a dose of morphine, according to a state Superior Court opinion.
The Superior Court panel denied defense motions that claimed the former practical nurse's 2010 trial was unfair and her subseque......
2011-08-20 00:06:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Matthew Becker told four different versions of what happened in his Rapho Township bedroom, where emergency workers found his pregnant girlfriend lying on a bed with a bullet in her left temple one week ago, police said.
In each of the versions, Becker, 22, admitted pulling the trigger of......
2011-08-19 22:06:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Lancaster city police used a Taser gun to subdue a wanted fugitive on Friday.
Eli S. Rodriguez, 18, of the 600 block of North Queen Street, who was wanted on a felony warrant, was charged with resisting arrest and sent to Lancaster County Prison.
He also faces a possible weapons c......
2011-08-18 22:43:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
More than 250 local veterans sit in the steel-and-concrete cells of Lancaster County Prison.
Many of them are accused of crimes that occurred as they tried to readjust to "civilian lives," as one veteran put it.
"It's a new normal back here," Ken Gardner, a local Marine veteran wh......
2011-08-18 22:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The Lancaster County Prison Board wants to hear more about a proposed "back-end" correctional center, according to a vote at Thursday's meeting.
The proposed transitional facility here would be a state-run center for nonviolent inmates and, perhaps, those serving time for parole and proba......
2011-08-16 22:13:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Lancaster city police have released the names of two officers involved in recent shooting incidents.
Officer Jason Zahm, an eight-year veteran of the force, was named as the officer who wounded an armed suspect in an Aug. 1 shooting in the 500 block of North Plum Street.
The incid......
2011-08-12 23:07:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Linda Bird was 89 cents away from having to make a really tough decision.
That was the account balance last month for her two transitional-living homes in New Danville, which have been helping female prison inmates for years.
Eighty-nine cents. And she had a mountain of b......
2011-08-12 20:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city teenager was charged with attempted homicide after he repeatedly stabbed a man Monday night in a dispute regarding a girl, police said.
City police said they charged 17-year-old Joshua T. Stewart as an adult because he used a deadly weapon — a knife — in the c......
2011-08-12 12:38:00
TOM MURSE
The district attorney has ruled that a veteran Lancaster city police officer was justified in shooting an armed man last week.
The suspect, Manuel Abrante III, 27, of Lancaster, refused orders to drop his handgun and was wounded twice in the buttocks in an apartment building in the 500 bl......
2011-08-11 22:05:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge read a long list of crimes in court Thursday, and Tyler Kuster admitted to each and every one of them.
Kuster, 20, of Denver, is the first of three adults to plead guilty to a widespread vandalism spree last year that caused more than $31,000 in damage in about a ......
2011-08-10 11:05:00
TOM KNAPP
A New York grand jury on Tuesday indicted a former West Hempfield man for his girlfriend's murder.
Timothy R. Handel, of New Windsor, N.Y., is accused of killing 27-year-old Kathleen M. Connolly, of 3165 Thistle Drive, West Hempfield Township.
Connolly, the mother of Handel's 2- a......
2011-08-09 20:36:00
RYAN ROBINSON and JENNIFER TODD
A Lititz-area man sexually assaulted a girl at different times over a nine-year period, according to police.
Joseph Formica, 41, of 409 1/2 Owl Hill Road, was arrested Friday, Warwick Township police said. He was charged with rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual inte......
2011-08-08 22:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two-month-old Addiel Flores was alone with his father in 2009 when the infant sustained a "devastating" injury, according to testimony Monday at a preliminary hearing.
The father, Antonio Flores-Feliciano, admitted he was alone with the child when the boy went limp and his eyes rolled bac......
2011-08-08 22:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man said he was seeking money for alcohol last year when he ransacked ATM machines inside numerous local businesses.
Adam Missimer, 25, will serve 3 to 6 years in state prison for the crime spree at area amusements, a bar, a bank and other buildings, according to a judge's ord......
