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......
2011-08-05 22:02:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted robber Kahlil Hammond has proclaimed his innocence by lashing out at Lancaster County Prison, according to court testimony on Friday.
In fact, a guard testified, Hammond has misbehaved so often that prison personnel stopped keeping count of the incidents months ago.
The ......
2011-08-04 22:16:00
TOM KNAPP
A four-week search for a missing West Hempfield Township woman ended Wednesday when her body was found buried in the backyard of a home in Orange County, N.Y.
Her boyfriend — the father of her two children — has been charged with her killing.
Kathleen M. Connolly, 27, ......
2011-08-03 21:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge spared a 33-year-old woman a lengthy prison term when she sentenced her Wednesday for stealing more than $500,000 while working as a real estate agent.
Melanie Beasom, a Lancaster Township resident, will spend three months in prison on work release and nine months......
2011-08-02 21:54:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County Prison is overcrowded and taxpayers can't afford to build a new one for $170 million, according to Scott Martin, chairman of the board of county commissioners.
Lancaster County also is one of the largest contributors of inmates to the state prison system but does not have......
2011-07-28 22:10:00
P.J. REILLY
Fumes from a glue being used on a roofing project at the Lancaster County Courthouse sickened several employees of the District Attorney's Office on Thursday.
As a result, District Attorney Craig Stedman sent his 75 workers home for the day at around 9:30 a.m.
"People reacted to i......
2011-07-28 21:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The last thing Thomas Wagner Sr. sees before he goes to bed is a photo of his grandson, Andrew Wagner.
"I look at Andrew's picture and say, 'Andrew, why did you get in that car?' " Wagner said in court Thursday.
"He never hurt anyone in his short life."
Andrew Wagner got i......
2011-07-27 21:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The random rape scared the entire city, a prosecutor said Wednesday in Lancaster County Court.
"The viciousness and brutality of what happened got the attention of the entire Lancaster city police department," a veteran detective said.
For those reasons, County Judge James Cullen ......
2011-07-25 21:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city man was sentenced to just under a year to just under 2 years in county prison for entering a district judge's home last year.
It was the maximum prison sentence allowed by state guidelines.
Pedro Plata, now 20, was acquitted in May of three serious charges, includ......
2011-07-21 22:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County Prison inmate was in grave condition Thursday after he jumped 13 feet from the upper tier of a cell block inside the prison, officials said.
Lancaster city police Lt. Todd Umstead said it appears the 45-year-old inmate deliberately jumped.
"He sustained serious ......
2011-07-21 22:10:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
By many accounts, Irvin Slaymaker III had left his criminal behavior behind by 2008.
Prior offenses of rape, drug dealing and drunken driving were in the past, his attorney said Thursday in county court.
"I swore I would never drink again," Slaymaker told County Judge Howard Knise......
2011-07-21 20:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The three youths barged into a dorm room at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology last year, wielding guns and knives, according to testimony in court.
Ryan A. Massenburg, the oldest of the crew at 19, gripped a pistol while demanding valuables from the two students inside.
......
2011-07-20 21:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A group of Lancaster city men had an ongoing feud with Diana Spencer, and they came to her house to kill her on April 16, a court document states.
Spencer, 33, was shot dead early that morning through her front door at 26 Old Dorwart St. Her four children also were inside when shots were ......
2011-07-20 20:41:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County Prison received a perfect score during a recent inspection of the facility and its operations by the state Department of Corrections.
This is the third consecutive inspection, dating to 2008, for which the prison at 625 E. King St. received a 100 percent compliance rating......
2011-07-20 20:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local jury convicted Timothy D. Anderson on Wednesday of a 2009 sexual assault that he recorded on his camera phone.
The jury returned guilty verdicts to four sex crimes, prompting Anderson's sister to dart from the courtroom.
Anderson sat emotionless as the jury foreman read th......
2011-07-19 21:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It was a typical summer day in 2009 at a Mount Joy pool for a group of Donegal High School students, according to testimony Tuesday in county court.
"Then an older man showed up," one of the girls nervously recalled on the witness stand.
That older man was Timothy D. Anderson, pro......
2011-07-18 21:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted killer Micah Stewart showed a little compassion in court Monday when he admitted to nearly killing his cellmate last year at Lancaster County Prison.
"I apologize for the situation, man. I'm sorry," Stewart told Edwin Vindas-Bultron.
"It's all right, man," the victim rep......
2011-07-08 22:34:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A man was charged with criminal homicide Friday after a woman was found dead in a Lancaster city apartment house.
The suspect, Pablo Ansurez Sanchez, 26, of 753 Marietta Ave., Apt. #1, and the victim were among four people — two men and two women — inside the residence, accord......
2011-07-08 22:22:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A foursome charged with robbing three Lancaster city men within minutes last month will stand trial, a judge ordered on Friday.
The four young men — after some coaxing by their attorneys — all agreed to waive their preliminary hearings on charges of robbery and conspiracy.......
2011-07-08 18:02:00
RYAN ROBINSON and DAVID O’CONNOR
A woman is dead after an incident in Lancaster city Friday morning, and police are investigating it as a homicide.
Police have not yet been able to identify the woman, city police Lt. Todd Umstead said Friday.
At 2:30 a.m., police had been dispatched to a first-floor apartment at ......
2011-07-06 21:04:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
America's latest "trial of the century" ended this week with a verdict for the ages — a Florida jury acquitted Casey Anthony of killing her young daughter.
Found guilty only of lesser charges of lying to police, Anthony likely will be a free woman after Thursday's sentencing.
...
2011-07-05 21:18:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Correction July 6, 2011 — Annette Glick, the owner of a dog that injured a boy last year, will not be responsible for restitution regarding the incident. The person handling the dog that day, Jordan Leed, might be ordered at a future......
2011-07-01 20:59:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Three people were charged in connection to injuries inflicted on two infants, including one who died after suffering from multiple broken bones that caused her so much pain that she cried constantly and stopped eating.
Lancaster city police recently filed the charges in the two unrelated ......
2011-06-29 22:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge signed a civil order Wednesday morning banning all local sales and possession of "bath salts."
Judge David Ashworth signed the temporary injunction filed by the district attorney's office, making it illegal for anyone to have or market the stimulant.
The o......
2011-06-29 22:20:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local judge warned two sex offenders sentenced Wednesday to probation that a slip-up would mean a stint in state prison.
Richard Tharp, of Elverson, and Nelson Shaiebly, of Conestoga, both were ordered on probation — in accordance with plea deals — for touching girls in sepa......
2011-06-28 21:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted killer's wife will spend up to 10 years in state prison for her role in the 2009 murder of Anthony Swaydis.
Rosa Perez-Marin drove two men to Swaydis' house on Aug. 11, 2009, then took them back home after they repeatedly shot Swaydis in front of his young daughter, according ......
2011-06-28 20:54:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
First, Terran Morgan tried to flee the Lancaster city police detective.
He then punched the officer and pulled a gun on him, according to testimony.
"Detective (Michael) Gerace was at a loss. Things had gone too far," First Assistant District Attorney Christopher Larsen explained ......
2011-06-27 23:02:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Victor Rodriguez-Torres is "a very lucky man," a Lancaster County judge said Monday morning at a sentencing hearing.
County Judge Louis Farina called him lucky because of an error he made while presiding over a March trial on sexual offenses Rodriguez-Torres allegedly committed against a ......
2011-06-27 15:06:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
For more than a decade, young Nicholas Schober has been committing crimes of theft, deception and intrusion.
The wave of bad acts caught up with the 23-year-old Schober on Monday when a county judge ordered him to state prison for up to 10 years.
Judge Dennis E. Reinaker sentenced......
2011-06-24 20:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
David Michael Groff was literally on the road to recovery from a prior life of crime and substance abuse, his attorney told a local judge Friday.
And then, in an instant back in August 2009, the phone rang.
Groff was behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle, but he still reache......
2011-06-23 22:05:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A local constable will stand trial on charges that he served warrants on the wrong woman, then collected payment for the job.
A district judge ordered Paul Castline Jr. to stand trial following a hearing regarding allegations that he knowingly served warrants on the wrong Edna Colon.
......
2011-06-22 21:57:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A self-proclaimed pedophile who kept one of the largest child porn collections ever found here will serve up to 20 years in prison.
Carl Crocker Jr., 40, had more than 18,000 photos and videos displaying children in various sex acts when police seized his computer in 2009, according to te......
2011-06-22 21:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted child rapist told a Lancaster County judge Wednesday he has no idea why he committed a horrible crime against a 5-year-old girl.
"I don't know what got into me that night," Wayne Beamsderfer Jr., who admitted last month to the rape, told the judge. "I can't take it back, but i......
2011-06-16 23:21:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Veteran attorney Sam Encarnacion said he will never forget the first time he heard a Lancaster County jury condemn a man to death.
The jury foreman made the announcement 12 years ago, sentencing convicted killer Leroy Stallworth, a city man who shot his estranged wife 12 times over a chil......
2011-06-16 22:21:00
AD CRABLE
Four children were injured, one of them critically, when a small pony cart they were riding in was rear-ended by a car near Leola Thursday morning.
A 2-year-old girl was taken by helicopter to Hershey Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition Thursday evening.
The......
2011-06-15 20:39:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
It took an eyewitness "a matter of seconds" to identify the man who allegedly shot and killed a young Columbia hip-hop artist last year, according to testimony Wednesday.
Three other witnesses were not as quick, but they also pointed to a picture of Jakeem Lydell Towles and said he killed......
2011-06-14 14:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A habitual sex offender was sentenced Tuesday to up to 20 years in prison for multiple assaults of a Columbia girl.
Carlos Manuel Rivera, formerly of Columbia, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years plus 10 years' probation for the repeated assaults, which occurred between December 2008 and June......
2011-06-10 13:14:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two men charged with killing a Lancaster city mother of four will stand trial after waiving their preliminary hearings.
Charged with the April 16 shooting of 33-year-old Diana Spencer are Oscar Martinez, 19, and Christopher Lassitter, 24.
District Judge Cheryl Hartman bound the me......
2011-06-09 23:28:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Correction June 9, 2011 — An earlier version of this story regarding John Kruger's death at Lancaster County Prison contained an inaccuracy. The prison's medical provider, not Kruger's attorney, petitioned to have Kruger admitted to ......
2011-06-09 21:54:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two Lancaster city men whose March trial on homicide charges for the 2004 killing of Heather Nunn ended in mistrials have pleaded guilty to lesser offenses.
Mistrials were declared for Hayward Stewart and Michael Stewart.
Two co-defendants, Edward Major and David Jordan, were conv......
2011-06-09 10:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster man was paroled Tuesday after serving three days for driving drunk and erratically with his young son in the car during a New Year's Eve snowstorm.
Edbert Laboy, 31, was caught Dec. 31, 2009, driving about 100 mph on snowy and icy roads in Manheim Township, according to invest......
2011-06-08 21:08:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday hired a new county solicitor.
Crystal Clark, 32, a partner with the Harrisburg law firm Thomas, Thomas & Hafer, will take the $100,000-per-year post July 1.
She will replace Don Lefever, 71, who will retire June 30 after five years o......
2011-06-03 21:04:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 55-year-old piano instructor was sentenced to prison this week for stalking a young Penn Township pupil and sending her love letters for months in 2009.
Scott C. Davis was ordered to Lancaster County Prison for one to 23 months, followed by three years of probation.
Judge Louis ......
2011-06-03 12:40:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County judge berated a Leola man Thursday while sentencing him to state prison for up to 20 years for repeated sexual assaults against a girl with mental-health issues.
"No doubt, you thought that she was less likely to tell anyone," Judge Dennis E. Reinaker told Joseph Hock, ......
2011-05-31 21:36:00
TOM MURSE
A Lititz man punched his 4-month-old daughter with such force over the weekend that she suffered traumatic brain injuries and fractured ribs, but he did not call 911 for help, according to police.
Eric M. Ortega, 29, of Tumbling Run, was charged with aggravated assault after the girl's mo......
2011-05-31 21:24:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster County man has been accused of threatening and physically abusing a woman, West Hempfield Township police said Tuesday.
On May 25, police learned of a violent domestic situation in the first block of North Donerville Road, they said. They were told that Kerry Scott Foudin......
2011-05-31 11:25:00
CINDY STAUFFER
An interpreter murmured steadily throughout the sentencing in Courtroom 1 on Tuesday, translating the proceedings for Charlie Rivera-Rodriguez.
But the interpreter suddenly fell silent as two crying women came forward to speak of the deep pain they had suffered after Rivera-Rodriguez had ......
2011-05-27 22:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Several years ago, Yumil Perez-Munoz raped a pre-teenager in Lancaster city.
But his contact with the girl didn't end there.
Jailed on a separate charge, Perez-Munoz penned coded letters from his cell to the rape victim, according to court testimony on Friday.
He even incl......
2011-05-27 20:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 21-year-old Ephrata man was jailed Friday for up to 10 years for "storming" the home of his girlfriend's former paramour.
Thomas W. McLaughlin, along with his brother and girlfriend, went to the victim's Ephrata Borough home last year and threatened him with a knife, according to testim......
2011-05-24 13:38:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A "high-level" New York drug dealer who was pushing volumes of cocaine and heroin here will serve up to 25 years behind bars.
Omar Rodriguez, 34, used the Route 222 corridor to traffic drugs from his home base to Reading, Allentown and Lancaster, according to investigators.
He was......
2011-05-20 23:52:00
TOM MURSE
A Lancaster man found shot to death in his New Holland Avenue apartment Thursday morning was partially blind and disabled due to the effects of severe diabetes, a family member said.
The homicide victim, Spencer L. Houston, 50, lived alone in an apartment at 491 New Holland Ave., his brot......
2011-05-20 20:45:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Tarna Gardner allowed her young daughter to be beaten, burned and nearly drowned by her husband for months in 2008.
She never said a word about it to police.
Gardner even went on to lie about the torture at the abuser's trial, saying she was the one responsible.
She was re......
2011-05-19 23:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Can a few dollars more vanquish violent gangs and drug pushers?
It's at least worth a try, officials say.
Local law enforcers are joining U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.'s plea for federal help in stalling the swell of gang and drug activity in eastern Pennsylvania.
Gangs are grow......
2011-05-19 22:43:00
NICOLE HERMAN
This weekend is the weekend: the sun will be shining, good times will be abounding and the hollers of the auctioneers will be astounding.
Saturday, the Lancaster County Drug Task Force will hold its 21st annual auction at the Lancaster County Park maintenance building at 950 Eshe......
2011-05-19 22:18:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The last time Lewis Jones saw Jose Ramos Jr. was when he watched Ramos kill his nephew, Douglas Jones, on a Lancaster city street.
On Thursday, more than a year later, the two met under difference circumstances: inside a courtroom where Ramos was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for ......
2011-05-18 11:05:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted armed robber Lamont Gorham might be partially blind, but that hasn't kept him from a life of crime, a county judge was told on Wednesday.
Judge Dennis E. Reinaker agreed, and ordered Gorham to 13 to 26 years in state prison for a series of local robbery and gun charges.
......
2011-05-11 22:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster resident admitted Wednesday to stabbing a man last year on a city sidewalk.
Juan Ubiles, 41, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault for the June 20 attack in the 300 block of South Prince Street.
Prosecutors said that Ubiles stabbed the ex-boyfriend of a woman he ......
2011-05-11 21:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury acquitted a city resident Wednesday on three of four charges stemming from an alleged break-in last year at the home of a district judge.
The jury convicted Pedro Plata, 20, of criminal trespass, one of the lesser charges he faced, for entering the North Street hom......
2011-05-10 22:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Did Pedro Plata break into his neighbor's home and sexually assault the woman, or was he invited inside?
Those were the alternatives presented by attorneys this week at Plata's trial.
A local jury will decide those questions and others during deliberations, which began Tuesday aft......
2011-05-10 21:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A young mother was ordered to state prison Tuesday for leaving her two toddlers home alone last April while she was out drinking.
Taquila S. Brown, 22, left her children — ages 1 and 2 — alone in a city apartment with no furniture or place to sleep on April 29, 2010.
P......
2011-05-05 19:43:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted rapist had nasty words for his victim, an attorney and a county judge at a sentencing hearing Thursday morning.
Brett M. Peters was belligerent during the hourlong hearing, pointing fingers and screaming at county Judge David Ashworth and others in the room.
"You're no......
2011-05-04 21:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Local law enforcers nabbed suspected drug dealers, drunken drivers and fugitives during a sweep of Lancaster city.
More than 100 arrests were made during the five-day sting that yielded offenders of many sorts, including a most-wanted fugitive suspect sought by York police.
Among ......
2011-05-03 23:10:00
P.J. REILLY
Christopher P. Larsen, the idealist, would like to see an end to the sexual exploitation of children.
But the realist in Lancaster County's first assistant district attorney is pessimistic about that prospect.
"The ability to actually reform and rehabilitate the perpetrators of th......
2011-04-29 22:44:00
TOM MURSE
A police officer who shot and killed a 41-year-old man during a lengthy standoff at an Earl Township mobile home park earlier this month was "entirely justified" in his use of deadly force, a state police investigation has determined.
The unidentified officer, a sniper with Lancaster Coun......
2011-04-26 22:04:00
TOM MURSE
County investigators have ordered a district judge candidate from Ephrata to shut down a shotgun raffle that would have raised hundreds of dollars for his political campaign. The district attorney said Tuesday that Lynne D. Boyer's campaign neglected to apply for a Small Games......
2011-04-25 21:34:00
TOM MURSE
An Ephrata man is raffling off a shotgun to raise money for his district judge campaign, saying a strict law that regulates games of chance and forced the shutdown of a similar political fundraiser last week doesn't apply to him.
"We've done everything by the book," Republican Lynne D. Bo......
2011-04-25 20:51:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted murderer Charlie Rivera-Rodriguez was a "powder keg" when he killed a city man in August 2009, a psychiatrist testified Monday in county court.
Rivera-Rodriguez was going through financial and marital stress, and he felt threatened by his one-time friend, Anthony Swaydis, the ps......
2011-04-21 20:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury convicted a city man Thursday of first-degree murder for the August 2009 killing of Anthony Swaydis.
The jury returned guilty verdicts at 11:35 a.m., taking about 4 1/2 hours to complete its deliberations, which began late Wednesday afternoon.
The jury conv......
2011-04-21 15:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A county judge told convicted thief Kelley Breniser that a prison term was in order, but state sentencing guidelines wouldn't allow it.
Judge Jeffery D. Wright reprimanded the Lancaster woman Thursday for stealing nearly $40,000 in rent money while employed as manager of a city housing co......
2011-04-21 15:18:00
TOM MURSE
A candidate for Lancaster County sheriff whose supporters were caught running an unlicensed raffle to raise money for his campaign said he accepts responsibility for their actions.
"It's my campaign. I'm not going to dodge the bullet," Republican Louie Rodriguez said in an interview. "It'......
2011-04-20 22:00:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Was Anthony Swaydis killed in cold blood?
Or was he shot dead by a man who feared for his own life?
Those questions must be decided by 12 jurors who on Wednesday began deliberating the fate of a city man charged in Swaydis' death.
The jurors did not reach a verdict Wednesd......
2011-04-20 20:59:00
TOM MURSE
Enthusiasm is a good thing, especially in politics.
But sometimes having too much of a good thing can backfire.
Supporters of Louie Rodriguez, a state narcotics agent who wants to be Lancaster County's next sheriff, came up with an unusual and creative way to raise money for his p......
2011-04-20 20:48:00
CINDY STAUFFER
A McCaskey High School student and another man planned to go to Diana Spencer's house and shoot her or her boyfriend, according to police.
The other man supplied the guns and said he wanted to shoot everyone in the Old Dorwart Street house, where Spencer lived with her four children, poli......
2011-04-19 22:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Last call has been served at Gusto on North Queen Street.
Lancaster County Judge Howard K. Knisely on Tuesday ordered a ban on alcohol sales at the 335 N. Queen St. establishment. The building is not to be the site of any sort of alcohol distribution, according to the order.
The l......
