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......
2012-02-09 13:01:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster city woman was charged with aggravated harassment after she spit on a police officer Thursday morning, police said.
Officers responded to the 500 block of Howard Avenue around 1:30 a.m. for a report of a woman outside who was possibly trying to fight occupants of a home, polic......
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......
2012-02-08 21:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster city teenager is behind bars after a crime spree that resulted in four arrests and 12 charges in two weeks.
Samara Jimenez, 19, is accused of several crimes, from armed robbery to retail theft, according to investigators.
Jimenez was arrested three times last month but......
2012-02-08 20:15:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Willow Street man threatened his girlfriend with a knife at his home Wednesday morning, police said.
She called 911 to report the incident at 3:18 a.m., West Lampeter Township police Chief James Walsh said.
The woman told police her boyfriend, Brett W. Martin, 50, of 10 Donnelly......
2012-02-08 16:13:44
It's an action superstar reunion: Arnold Schwarzenegger is joining Sylvester Stallone for the thriller "The Tomb."
The filmmakers said Wednesday that Schwarzenegger has signed on to star alongside Stallone in the prison-break adventure.
......
2012-02-08 08:41:48
Police have detained five prison guards who were on duty when two convicted murderers escaped from their cells at a high-security lockup in Belgrade, including one who had taken part in the assassination of a Serbian prime minister, officials said Wednesday.
Both......
2012-02-07 22:02:00
DAN NEPHIN
Dennis Richard Silvius recently told his landlord and neighbors that he'd be undergoing a heart procedure Tuesday, they said.
Instead, around 9:30 a.m., the 54-year-old robbed the Sovereign Bank around the corner from the boardinghouse where he'd been living, Manheim police said, briefly ......
2012-02-06 14:06:40
A judge on Monday sentenced a South Dakota inmate to death for killing a prison guard by bashing him with a pipe and covering his mouth with plastic wrap during a failed escape attempt.
Rodney Berget, 49, pleaded guilty in November to killing Ronald "R.J.&qu......
2012-02-03 21:42:00
JENNIFER TODD
Seven alleged drug dealers are out of business as the result of a two-day detail carried out by Lancaster police.
The sweep, which targeted street-level drug activity, was conducted Wednesday and Thursday by the city police Selective Enforcement Unit.
During the "Buy/Bust" operati......
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.
......
2012-02-01 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......
2012-02-01 06:22:52
State police in western New York say they've caught a 22-year-old man who walked away from a prison work detail in northern Pennsylvania.
Troopers say on Tuesday they spotted a vehicle that had been reported stolen by an escaped inmate from Pennsylvania's Tioga C......
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 20:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Troy Stewart and Lauren Reed pleaded for leniency in court Tuesday as they stood for sentencing for the sexual assault of an unconscious man in 2010.
Lancaster County President Joseph Madenspacher granted no such mercy.
Madenspacher ordered each defendant to serve 10 to 20 years i......
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......
2012-01-31 17:38:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A state prison escapee might be headed to Lancaster, police said Tuesday.
Kenyatta Omar Blaylock, 31, of Philadelphia, left the Wernersville Community Corrections Center at 11:35 a.m. Monday with permission to go to Lancaster County Courthouse, state police at Reading said.
Accord......
2012-01-30 23:31:00
STAFF REPORT
State police have charged a New Holland man with the armed robbery of a Gap sandwich shop in August.
Joshua Handel, 20, is charged with robbery, unlawful restraint, terroristic threats and theft for the Aug. 10 robbery at Subway, 5323 Lincoln Highway.
Police said Handel displayed ......
2012-01-27 22:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lititz man who raped a pre-teen girl and offered sex to another girl through a social-networking site will spend 15 to 30 years in state prison.
John Christopher Forehand, 41, gave a tearful apology while hearing his sentence Friday afternoon in Lancaster County Court.
A psychol......
2012-01-27 21:50:00
STAFF REPORT
An East Lampeter Township man is facing sex abuse charges relating to his conduct with three girls.
Erin Gregory Henderson, 43, of 143 Greenland Drive, has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse of children, one count of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minors for ......
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 ......
2012-01-27 16:47:55
One of three siblings who was part of a multistate crime spree and nationwide manhunt planned to escape from a Colorado jail with his sister, telling the FBI in a letter that he had enjoyed his stay, authorities said in a document released Friday.
Dylan Dougherty......
2012-01-26 22:47:00
STAFF REPORT
Police have charged a Lititz man who they say used a knife to hold up an East Hempfield Township convenience store Sunday night.
Through an investigation, police were able to identify 20-year-old Jon K. Taylor as a suspect.
He was taken into custody with the assistance of Lancaste......
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......
2012-01-26 15:40:00
CINDY STAUFFER
A Manheim Township man was arrested for attacking his 75-year-old mother, dragging her into her house and then preventing her from answering the door when police arrived to help her, investigators said.
Gary W. Williams, 47, of the 100 block of Tanglewood Lane, was charged with simple ass......
2012-01-26 10:29:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Authorities said they have arrested the third of three men charged with threatening, kidnapping and extorting a Lancaster city businessman.
Lennell Anthony Preston, 35, of the 600 block of Rockland Street, was arrested Wednesday night in the 400 block of West Vine Street by U.S. Marshals ......
2012-01-25 22:52:00
JENNIFER TODD
Police say he slammed her head into the vehicle's dashboard numerous times.
He allegedly punched her in the face and leg and, at one point, tried to choke her — all as he maneuvered a vehicle through Lancaster city early on Oct. 5.
When the woman managed to escape the moving......
2012-01-25 22:44:00
JENNIFER TODD
A Gap man is facing charges that he committed 30 burglaries in two counties during a five-week span late last year, police said.
Authorities say Donald Welsh Jr., 37, of 672 Gault Road, struck homes and businesses in nine townships in Lancaster County and a home in South Londonderry Towns......
2012-01-25 10:18:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Alert neighbors helped police catch a Columbia woman trying to break into an East Donegal Township house for the second time, police reported.
Brittney Lee Sawyers, 26, of 1274 Kinderhook Road, Columbia, targeted a home in the 700 block of Union School Road on Dec. 5 and Jan. 8, Susquehan......
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......
2012-01-24 12:48:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police allege a Lancaster city woman stabbed her husband with scissors Monday, an injury for which he was hospitalized.
Maria Elena Ortiz, 25, was charged with aggravated assault in the 5:30 p.m. incident at the couple's home in the 400 block of West Vine Street, city police said in a cri......
2012-01-23 21:47:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former local high school teacher accused of having sex with a pair of students is now charged with taking photos of the assaults.
Lancaster city police allege Christy L. Smith took several photos of sexual encounters with one of the victims, a 17-year-old boy. According to police, the b......
2012-01-23 21:39:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Kelley Lee Breniser was spared prison last April, the first time she was sentenced for stealing from her employer.
She wasn't so lucky the second time.
A Lancaster County judge jailed Breniser for 9 to 23 months for stealing more than $11,600 from a different employer.
In ......
2012-01-23 21:29:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Two county men have been charged with two more armed robberies, police said Monday.
They are Shaun Ronald Appler, 26, of 269 Loop Road, Quarryville, and Evan Charles Blank, 21, of 3154 Lincoln Highway East, Paradise, state police Trooper Gerard Sauers said.
The pair robbed the Tur......
2012-01-20 21:01:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police arrested two men Thursday in connection with three armed robberies in East Lampeter Township earlier this week.
Charges against them also are pending for three other robberies in nearby municipalities.
Township and state police on Thursday arrested Shaun Ronald Appler, 26, ......
2012-01-20 11:01:00
JENNIFER TODD
Four people have been charged in connection with the assault and robbery of two men Wednesday in New Holland.
Police said the assailants targeted the victims because they were wearing a color associated with a certain gang.
Lt. Jonathan Heisse said the victims "just happened to be......
2012-01-20 15:47:17
One of three inmates who broke out of an Arizona prison and a woman who helped them escape pleaded guilty Friday in the slayings of an Oklahoma couple who were carjacked in New Mexico while the escapees were on the run.
Tracy Province, 44, and Casslyn Welch, 45, ......
2012-01-20 07:32:55
An inmate is getting at least one more year in prison for an escape that ended a day later with him being taken into custody with his wife near the New Jersey border.
Franklin Barndt pleaded guilty to escape during pretrial motions Thursday. He admitted leaving a......
2012-01-19 21:59:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
It's an old scam. Go up to a home, offer to pave the owner's driveway, then either collect the money and not do the work or complete the job and then charge the person much more than the original quote.
Sometimes the ploy works, and sometimes it doesn't.
For Frankie Lee Broadway, ......
2012-01-19 21:47:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An eighth DUI conviction will cost a Lititz man up to 4 1/2 years in prison.
Barry Shultz has a history of driving under the influence of alcohol that dates to 1986, according to court records.
His latest two charges — both in Lancaster city, last year and in 2007 — pr......
2012-01-19 20:59:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have arrested an alleged drug dealer in Lancaster city, they said.
Officers responded at about 11 p.m. Tuesday to Mangat Mini Market, 629 W. Orange St., for a reported drug violation, city police said in a criminal complaint.
When officers asked Elizar Maldonado, 25, of the......
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 21:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Terry Lighty hardly flinched when a judge ordered him to state prison for 25 to 50 years.
Lighty, convicted in November of breaking into a Franklin & Marshall College professor's home, knew what was coming, his attorney said this week.
Lighty faced a mandatory 25-year sentence......
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,......
2012-01-18 08:53:00
RYAN ROBINSON
An observant neighbor helped police nab two suspects in a home burglary in Ephrata, police said.
Electronics valued at $600 were taken from a home in the 100 block of West Sunset Avenue on Monday, Ephrata police said.
A neighbor who witnessed the burglary recognized one of t he su......
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......
2012-01-17 07:20:09
Police are searching for an inmate they say drove away from a southeastern Pennsylvania jail in a stolen car.
State police say 29-year-old Jesus Manuel Gonzalez was to be transferred Monday from Wernersville Community Corrections Center for violating his parole b......
2012-01-13 21:13:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster man was arrested after police say he fired a gun in the air numerous times in North York on Sunday.
Northern York County Regional Police on Wednesday obtained an arrest warrant for Andre Isiah Threatt, 22, of 2338 Fruitville Pike, they said in a press release.
On Wedne......
2012-01-13 12:01:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Conoy Township man was sent to prison after police say he severely assaulted his wife at their home on Thursday.
Scot Anthony Hipple, 41, of the 2500 block of River Road, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, Susquehanna Regional police said.
An 18-year-old woman ......
2012-01-13 09:25:29
A manhunt that riveted Japan ended Friday when police captured a Chinese convict who bolted from a Hiroshima penitentiary clad only in his underwear in the country's first prison break in more than two decades.
Police found Li Guolin, who was serving a 23-year se......
2012-01-12 23:04:00
JENNIFER TODD
Less than 24 hours after he allegedly robbed a Lancaster city bank, Dustin Lee Rettew was behind bars.
Rettew, 37, of the 100 block of House Rock Road, Pequea, allegedly held up Northwest Savings Bank, 922 Columbia Ave., Wednesday afternoon.
Police say it was Rettew who entered th......
2012-01-12 22:07:00
JENNIFER TODD
Lancaster city business owners can breathe a little easier.
Lancaster city police said Thursday they have nabbed the man they believe was responsible for last week's armed robberies of three city businesses in a roughly 24-hour span.
Police on Monday arrested Juan C. Gonzalez, 45,......
2012-01-12 22:01:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Two people were arrested Tuesday after $600,000 worth of high-grade marijuana and three loaded handguns were found in their vehicles during separate but related traffic stops on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Lancaster County, police said.
State police said they found the marijuana and hand......
2012-01-12 02:43:21
The daring jailbreak of a dangerous criminal wearing only his prison-issued underwear has sparked an intense manhunt in a southern Japanese city and prompted schools to advise children to travel in supervised groups until he is caught.
Nearly 800 police officers ......
2012-01-10 12:34:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Marietta man was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, police said.
Jeremie Michael Winter, 23, of 539 E. Hazel Ave., sexually assaulted the girl in a shed next to his trailer April 12 or 13, 2009, Susquehanna Regional police said in a criminal complaint.
Winter w......
2012-01-10 10:56:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police allege an Elizabethtown teenager stole items from numerous unlocked vehicles in Manheim Township.
GPS units, electronics, jewelry and various other items were stolen from the vehicles overnight Sunday, township police said.
Shortly after 11 a.m. Monday, officers stopped Vit......
2012-01-06 22:42:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Lancaster police have arrested one of three men sought in a robbery-extortion-kidnapping investigation.
Chapel Thompson, 27, of the 100 block of Penshire Drive, Manheim Township, was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbery, kidnapping, theft by extortion, criminal conspiracy to commit......
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......
2012-01-05 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......
2012-01-05 11:01:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Lancaster city police said they pulled over Jerome D. Dennison at 3 a.m. Wednesday because the lights weren't working around his license plate.
Turned out the 18-year-old had much more serious problems than just some burned-out bulbs.
Dennison was carrying a loaded automatic handg......
2012-01-03 23:36:00
JENNIFER TODD
Lancaster police have charged two men in an attempted robbery last month during which a gun was fired into an apartment where three children were sleeping.
Police arrested Tyquanne Shamar Johnson, 20, without incident Sunday evening and Clifton Kelvin Hunter, 17, turned himself in the nex......
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......
2012-01-02 13:55:00
TOM MURSE
A Quarryville man has been charged with running over a pedestrian while drunk, then fleeing the scene as the victim lay unconscious on the ground late Thursday night.
Dustin J. Lewis, 26, of South Lime Street in the borough, turned himself in to police the next morning and was charged wit......
2011-12-31 20:21:00
JON RUTTER
At the dawn of 2011, to borrow from the classic Monty Python sketch, a minute passed. Roughly 525,600 more minutes were to pass before the ball dropped on 2011. A pattern of conflicts, scandals and storms emerged. First came the damage, then the damage control: Weird......
2011-12-30 20:01:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have charged an East Donegal Township man after they say he pointed a loaded gun at his wife's head, choked her and barricaded himself in his home Thursday night.
Justin David Baltozer, 30, of 346 Pinkerton Road, confronted his wife over a domestic issue, Susquehanna Regional polic......
2011-12-30 11:54:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have charged a city man with arson after they say he set a small fire in an apartment building on Thursday.
City firefighters and police were dispatched to an apartment building at 130 N. Prince St. for a structure fire about 5:32 p.m., police said.
All of the residents of ......
2011-12-29 23:13:00
JENNIFER TODD
Police have arrested a man accused of robbing a Lancaster Township bank on Christmas Eve.
Derek L. Danz, 33, of South Queen Street, was taken into custody late Thursday morning at a home on West Vine Street, according to Manheim Township police Sgt. Tom Rudzinski.
Danz is charged ......
2011-12-29 16:01:00
DAVID O'CONNOR
After his neighbor died unexpectedly, Mark J. McDonald of Ephrata "gained the trust" of the neighbor's family, local police said.
Family members of the woman who had died came in from other states, and McDonald "claimed he was a close friend of the deceased," police continued.
Con......
2011-12-28 21:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two Lancaster city men have been charged with breaking into more than 20 Lancaster city homes during a widespread, two-month spree.
Once inside the homes, the pair stole everything they could find, from baseball cards to framed family photos, police allege.
They stole more than $1......
2011-12-23 11:32:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Two men were arrested for a scheme involving phony ATM deposits in September and October, police said.
Barry Esser, 19, of 1492 Briertown Road, East Earl, and Colton Buckwalter, 22, of 1286 Division Highway, Ephrata, were charged with theft by deception and criminal conspiracy.
In......
2011-12-23 10:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
First, Tyrick Walker beat the other homeless man; then he drowned him in the Susquehanna River.
Walker admitted Friday that's what happened when he and Mark McLaughlin engaged in a dispute at a makeshift homeless camp in West Hempfield Township.
McLaughlin died April 4 at the rive......
2011-12-22 21:27:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police arrested 13 suspected drug dealers in a warrants sweep on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lancaster city, they said.
Javier Gomez, 36, of the 800 block of Wabank Street, was arrested on two warrants for allegedly dealing cocaine, city police said.
Gomez also faces additional charg......
2011-12-21 20:57:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two women took everything they could find during a weeklong spree of more than a dozen burglaries in southern Lancaster County, police said.
Jewelry, collector coins, laptop computers, firearms — even wrapped Christmas presents — were taken from 16 houses between Nov. 26 and D......
2011-12-20 22:42:00
JENNIFER TODD
New Holland police have charged a 21-year-old Ephrata man for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
Ryan S. Showalter of 20 Landis Road was charged Tuesday with two counts each of statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors.
He was arraigned by District Judge Rodney ......
2011-12-20 20:50:00
RYAN ROBINSON and LARRY ALEXANDER
State police have charged a man with robbing the Susquehanna Bank on Route 41 in Gap on Dec. 13.
The suspect, Emory Edward Reed III, 36, surrendered Monday night, according to police. Police charged him with robbery and theft.
The suspect's image was captured by bank surveillance ......
2011-12-20 14:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A York woman will spend up to three years in prison for stealing more than $120,000 from a Strasburg fireworks company.
Amy Melissa Ford was office manager at Schaefer Pyrotechnics when she wrote checks to herself by forging the business owner's name.
Ford, 38, recently was senten......
2011-12-16 22:34:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A Marietta man accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls in October now faces new charges involving more young victims.
Daniel Seth Leppien, 35, of 29 W. Market St., Marietta, was charged by Susquehanna Regional Police on Friday for making sexual advances on four more underage gir......
2011-12-16 21:32:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster man who police say robbed a credit union in East Hempfield Township on Tuesday is behind bars.
Robert J. Souders, 33, of Lancaster, was taken into custody without incident at the township police department Thursday evening, police said.
Souders was interviewed and admi......
2011-12-14 23:25:00
DAN NEPHIN
The Rev. Timothy Mentzer acknowledged that organizing a public forum on the three suicides at Lancaster County Prison would be controversial, even within his church. But the senior pastor at Trinity Lutheran said the issue was important, and he issued a challenge to the Lancas......
2011-12-13 22:38:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Ronald Gleim pleaded his case before a local judge last month, declaring that his baby girl wasn't harmed under his watch.
Gleim did not argue that the 6-month-old child was deliberately and seriously injured.
But Gleim told Lancaster County Judge Howard Knisely he didn't do......
2011-12-13 22:17:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A 58-year-old Rapho Township man is in Lancaster County Prison after police charged him with more than 100 counts of sexual abuse of children.
John Graham Disney, of 6999 Elizabethtown Road, turned himself in to police on Monday, state police at Ephrata said.
Disney is accused of ......
2011-12-13 13:36:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have filed charges against five alleged smash-and-grab burglars who were arrested Monday morning, they said.
One was identified as Jonathan Vazquez-Panzardi, 23, who is homeless, West Hempfield Township police Chief Mark Pugliese said.
The other four are boys from Lancaster......
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......
2011-12-09 21:22:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
It's been a bad week for Ardarrius Laguan Williams.
First, the 34-year-old Lancaster man was shot at his home at around midnight Wednesday by an unidentified assailant.
After being treated at the hospital Thursday, he was arrested on Friday by city police, who said they found drug......
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......
2011-12-08 22:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police have accused the former general manager of Penn Cinema of stealing more than $127,000 from the Manheim Township movie theater.
Manheim Township police arrested Andrew Tuzzino, 48, this week and charged him with stealing money for a year and a half through a scheme involving phony t......
2011-12-08 21:50:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police have accused a trio of women of burglarizing three homes in southern Lancaster County in a single day.
State police suspect the Lancaster city women, who are accused of burglarizing the homes on Dec. 2, of committing other burglaries in the area, according to authorities.
T......
2011-12-07 21:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Child pornography wouldn't exist if not for offenders like Matthew Guillory, a local judge said on Wednesday.
"If it wasn't for people like you, this multibillion dollar industry wouldn't be around," County Judge Dennis Reinaker told Guillory at sentencing. "I want you to know your role i......
2011-12-06 22:27:00
DAVID O'CONNOR
A Rapho Township man who's a registered sex offender is now facing charges of possessing child pornography and contacting and threatening a 14-year-old girl.
Kevin Andrew Shenk, 27, waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday before Manheim District Judge John Winters and was being held in Lanca......
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!"......
2011-12-06 21:27:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Leola man is accused of stealing more than $1,000 worth of sexual-performance enhancers.
Robert Elmer Kieta, 29, of the 100 block of West Main Street, stole $1,125 worth of the male sexual-performance enhancers from a city convenience store Monday morning, police said.
He allege......
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......
2011-12-05 20:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Charles Bleacher Jr. was trusted as the Lancaster city girl's baby sitter and caretaker from 2005 to 2010.
But over the years, Bleacher sexually abused the preteen, raping and assaulting her on countless occasions, it was said in court.
And he recorded the assaults and kept the co......
2011-12-05 20:50:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster city man was arrested Monday morning after he set some clothes on fire, sprayed lighter fluid on his wife and turned on a gas stove to try to burn down their house, according to police.
No one was injured, including a 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy who live there and wer......
2011-12-02 12:20:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Lancaster man who allegedly tried to sell edible mushrooms as psychedelic mushrooms in Ephrata Township is behind bars, police said.
Jayson J. Hartman, 20, was interrupted by police before he could sell the mushrooms, Ephrata police Sgt. Philip Snavely said.
Police were dispatch......
2011-12-01 21:43:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police have accused a 38-year-old woman of slashing her husband with a knife and endangering the couple's two toddlers during a domestic dispute at their Elizabethtown home in October.
Her husband, according to a police affidavit, believes his wife was under the influence of bath salts....
2011-12-01 21:04:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former Lancaster city couple face trial on charges they caused the death of an infant girl in 2009.
Jose Ricardo Colon and Holly Snow Steffy, both 23, appeared at a city magistrate's office Thursday to waive their preliminary hearings.
Shackled and handcuffed, the former couple ......
2011-12-01 10:27:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A suspected drug dealer was arrested after he allegedly fired a gun at a woman in Lancaster city Thursday morning, police said.
Officers on patrol in the area of South Queen and Conestoga streets heard a single gunshot at 1:41 a.m., city police said.
They found a 27-year-old ......
2011-11-29 23:36:00
JEFF HAWKES
Finding work beats sitting in a jail cell. That was the logic behind Job Court.
Since 2006, Lancaster County's pioneering Job Court has helped scores of low-level criminals move to employment, a regular paycheck and a law-abiding lifestyle.
But earlier this year, Job Court was qui......
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......
2011-11-29 11:44:00
RYAN ROBINSON
An officer used a Taser several times on a woman during an incident early Sunday in Lancaster city, police said.
City police Sgt. Richard Heim and Officer Christopher McCormick responded to the first block of Locust Street for an assault call at 12:01 a.m., Heim said in a criminal complai......
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......
2011-11-26 20:01:00
JACK BRUBAKER
On Christmas morning, Tammie Hodapp Kahler will find a present from her only brother under the tree. It will be the same gift, in the same gift wrap, that was under the tree last year and the year before that and every year going back to 2003. James "Jay" Hodapp Jr. had p......
2011-11-25 19:22:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Thanks to help from a resident, Ephrata police arrested a suspected daytime burglar earlier this week.
On Monday at about 10:30 a.m., police were dispatched to the first block of Briarcross Drive in Ephrata Township for a burglary in progress, Ephrata police Sgt. Philip Snavely said.
......
2011-11-23 10:57:00
STAFF REPORT
Police charged a 28-year-old city man with theft from vehicles after a resident saw someone going through a neighbor's vehicle early Monday morning in Lancaster Township.
The neighbor called police about 5:30 a.m., and Manheim Township officers stopped Christopher Edward Riley, 28, of the......
2011-11-22 21:18:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Monday was not a good day for Steven Gonzalez-Delgado, 24, of the first block of Travelo Drive.
Lancaster city police offered this account of their arrest of Gonzalez-Delgado:
The suspect ran a stop sign at Green and Shippen streets. After he was stopped, an officer ran his licens......
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......
2011-11-22 11:23:00
CINDY STAUFFER
An alert resident helped city police catch a burglary suspect Monday afternoon.
Officers went to the 700 block of Reservoir Street just before 2:45 p.m., after they received a call about suspicious activity.
They saw Carlos F. Echevarria, 35, who has no fixed address, leaving the ......
2011-11-21 22:14:00
TOM MURSE
A young Ephrata woman who tried to kill her sleeping mother by pouring a pot of boiling water over her face last year will spend 13 to 30 years in prison, a judge ordered Monday.
Her long-distance boyfriend, who egged her on via phone from 600 miles away that morning in July 2010, was giv......
2011-11-21 15:50:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Hector Camara Jr. was the good neighbor, the nice guy, the giving person, a Mount Joy woman told the judge Monday.
Camara, 65, did yard work with her family, she said. He painted their house. He also talked to her teenage son when the son was feeling troubled.
But the teen told hi......
2011-11-20 00:21:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT and CHIP SMEDLEY
Fifteen men dressed in head-to-toe chocolate brown fill the dialysis unit's chairs. Machines around the room buzz and whir, slowly filtering waste and fluid from the men's bodies, a job their failing kidneys can no longer handle. A small television fleetingly captures one......
2011-11-20 00:20:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT and CHIP SMEDLEY
What's behind the increase of older inmates in the state prison system? Experts point to everything from aging baby boomers and longer life spans to overall prison population growth and a trend toward stiffer sentences. "Lifers" make up a sizable portion of the elderly st......
2011-11-20 00:19:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT and CHIP SMEDLEY
Older offenders who responded to a Sunday News inquiry said they get little special treatment from prison staff or fellow inmates young enough to be their children or grandchildren. One possibility haunts older inmates more than any other: "We ... fear that we may die in here,......
2011-11-20 00:18:00
STAFF
EDWARD WILLIAM RAWLINGS
AGE: 87 CRIMES: Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, corruption of minors and indecent exposure. Rawlings assaulted a young girl in Caernarvon Township over a four-year period beginning in 1984, when......
2011-11-17 23:34:00
TOM KNAPP
Police arrested two men minutes after they allegedly invaded a Lancaster Township apartment and robbed the occupants at gunpoint shortly after midnight Thursday.
Tyeke J. Holcomb, 21, of East Main Street, Mountville, and Nelson Mejias, 23, of Hebrank Street, were charged with robbery, cri......
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 23:52:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Police have accused a 19-year-old Lancaster city resident of shooting a man to death in August.
City police arrested Robert Baron "Hoopty" Brown, 19, of the first block of East Andrew Street, on Tuesday and charged him with the Aug. 31 slaying of Robert Hampton, 28, formerly of Philadelph......
2011-11-16 22:04:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Three years ago, Levi Stoltzfoos argued at trial that his Amish faith excused him from committing a bank-deposit scam.
The jury didn't buy it.
A Lancaster County judge, while scolding Stoltzfoos for using the Amish defense, sentenced him to 2 to 10 years in state prison.
L......
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 17:04:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A burglar who stole jars of change from a New Holland apartment ended up causing a police standoff Wednesday morning, police said.
A resident returning home shortly before 4 a.m. found a man inside her East Main Street apartment, New Holland police Lt. Jonathan W. Heisse said. The man fle......
2011-11-14 20:47:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police nabbed a suspected burglar in Lancaster Township on Saturday.
Corey Vaughn Clevenstine, 29, who has no permanent address, stole an assault rifle and a large television, together valued at $2,000, from a home in the 3400 block of River Road in July, township police said.
Det......
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......
2011-11-13 00:14:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Have a Heart for Persons in the Criminal Justice System is no longer unified in its call for the dismissal of Lancaster County Prison Warden Vincent Guarini. The prison-monitoring organization last month asked the prison board to fire Guarini, appoint an interim warden and con......
2011-11-13 00:13:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Three prisoners have committed suicide in the 1,100-inmate Lancaster County Prison this year. How unusual is that? "Very unusual, but not unprecedented," according to Lindsay Hayes, an expert on suicide prevention in correctional facilities who is examining the situation here. The ......
2011-11-11 22:37:00
CINDY STAUFFER
David Croft's neighbors had reported Croft was indecently exposing himself in his East Donegal Township neighborhood, but police could not verify it.
This week, one of the neighbors took up a video camera and caught Croft in the act, as he stood nude at his front door around the time kids......
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 20:11:00
RYAN ROBINSON
An Ephrata teenager is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, police said.
William Witherspoon, 19, of Duke Street, was taken into custody in the 200 block of Washington Avenue Nov. 4 after a two-week investigation, Ephrata police said.
The girl and her mother told pol......
2011-11-10 13:02:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have accused a Lancaster man with setting fire to a city row home early Tuesday while nine people were inside.
Phillip Michael Whitted, 31, of 613 S. Lime St., was arrested without incident Wednesday morning in his block, city police Lt. Todd Umstead said.
He was committed ......
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......
2011-11-08 21:31:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A Lancaster Township man is in prison after being charged with possession of narcotics.
Manheim Township police on Tuesday charged Carlos E. Segarra-Rivera, 23, of 724 S. West End Ave., with possession with intent to deliver heroin, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of......
2011-11-08 20:48:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Lancaster city police have accused a 32-year-old man of briefly stealing a 2,000-pound police horse named Charlie on Monday, according to Lt. Todd Umstead.
Police charged Adam Christopher Schulz, 32, of the 800 block of West Walnut Street, with felony theft by unlawful taking, Umstead sai......
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 22:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A deserted, stolen pickup truck and a forgotten cellphone.
That's how Lancaster city police traced the driver in a hit-and-run crash that caused a seriously injury.
On Sunday, police charged city man Brian E. Hostetter with five felonies for the Oct. 27 crash at Prince and King st......
2011-11-07 20:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
One last chance, a local judge told Rebecca Fromm on Monday in Lancaster County court.
After that, Judge Jeffery Wright told Fromm, her 14 prior felonies finally will catch up to her.
Her latest crime — punching a state police corporal in the face — will cost her 9 to ......
2011-11-07 20:25:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The man who recently shot a 7-year-old girl in Lancaster appeared to be aiming his gun at a man in another car, witnesses told police.
Both the driver of that car, a silver Mercedes-Benz, and another witness said they saw Rene Ruiz-Mayo firing in the direction of the Mercedes during the s......
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 16:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
For Mario Bou, it was a case of a rap music video gone wrong.
Bou was an extra last year in a rap video being filmed in Lancaster city, according to court testimony.
He borrowed his father's Hummer and several of his relatives' guns for the shoot, according to Thursday's testimony......
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 21:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Local law enforcers didn't find fugitive Dawud Worthey on Wednesday morning in Lancaster city. But they found the next best thing: his brother.
That man, Barry Hodges, also is a wanted fugitive. He was arrested as he tried to run from a house on North Mary Street.
The fugitive-tra......
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......
2011-11-01 20:39:00
JENNIFER TODD
A Lancaster man will spend three years in prison for preparing false tax returns, federal officials said Tuesday.
Leonard Destine, 35, pleaded guilty June 23 to 31 counts of willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns.
He was sentenced in federal court Tuesd......
2011-10-31 23:19:00
JIMMY PIANKA
The visitation room at Lancaster County Prison was nondescript and drab, but now, after months of drawing and sewing, a group of female inmates has brightened it.
Under the guidance of four volunteers from Beginning in the Right Direction (BIRD) Ministries, about 14 women collaborated to ......
2011-10-28 22:11:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
An inmate at Lancaster County Prison was hospitalized Friday after attempting suicide in what police said was a bid for attention.
The inmate, a 23-year-old man who was jailed on a parole violation, attempted to hang himself from his bed.
"It wasn't a serious attempt," Lancaster p......
2011-10-28 22:04:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Clarification Nov. 8, 2011 — The story below reported that Jesse William King Jr., 25, was arrested on Oct. 27, while hiding in an attic at 523 Manor St. He does not reside at that address and was there without the tenant's knowledge......
2011-10-28 21:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Sex offender Timothy D. Anderson's third trial of the year ended just like all the rest: guilty.
Anderson, 38, was convicted Friday of his most serious charges yet, found guilty of nine felony offenses regarding contact with a teenage girl.
Anderson courted the 15-year-old girl on......
2011-10-27 22:37:00
JENNIFER TODD
Lancaster city police have charged a Utah man in connection with a 2006 home-invasion robbery during which an elderly couple was assaulted and bound.
Investigators said DNA collected at the scene of the crime eventually led them to Sophath Mek, 27, who currently resides in Logan, about 80......
2011-10-26 22:24:00
JENNIFER TODD
A Manor Township man is facing burglary charges after he was caught on camera taking items from a township property over the weekend, police said.
Guylang Ucherrengos, 28, of Travello Drive, allegedly broke a window late Saturday night and entered a building in the 3300 block of Columbia ......
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.
...
2011-10-26 17:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A busted taillight and a distinctive "black spot."
That's how city police tied Andres Lopez to a fatal pedestrian accident this summer, according to court testimony.
Those markings were seen, in surveillance videos, on a gold car that struck an elderly man Sept. 18 on West Vine St......
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 21:27:00
RYAN ROBINSON and LARRY ALEXANDER
A Lancaster Township man has been arrested on allegations that he sexually abused a child, police said.
Hernan Martinez, 34, of 1075 Whitewater Road, was arrested without incident Oct. 11 at his home, Manheim Borough police Officer Vincent Arzamendi said Tuesday.
According to the ......
2011-10-24 21:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A "sexually violent predator" was paroled Monday after serving 10 months for groping three woman last year.
Shawn Henson, 20, admitted in May to assaulting the three victims, including an elderly woman.
The assaults happened at different times, and the victims were chosen at rando......
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......
2011-10-24 12:40:00
NICK GALLUP
A benefit auction to support local prison ministries will be held Friday evening and Saturday at the Farmersville Auction grounds, 33 N. Farmersville Road, Ephrata. The auction is sponsored by Support for Prison Ministries, a Lititz-based interdenominational ministry to prisoners, their fam......
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 10:14:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Someone saw a man push in a screen on the window of a Lancaster city home Thursday, enter the home then leave with a flat-screen television set.
The man put the TV in a white car and drove away.
The witness quickly called the city police.
A short time later, police caught ......
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 20:11:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police have charged a former city man with robbing a Lancaster Township bank last week.
Moises Sanchez-Lugo, 28, of Chester, robbed the PNC Bank, 1356 Columbia Ave., on Oct. 11, Manheim Township police said.
At 1:32 p.m., Sanchez-Lugo handed a teller a note indicating that it was ......
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 ......
2011-10-19 07:28:00
RYAN ROBINSON
Police nabbed a suspect trying to steal cash from a Warwick Township farmer's produce stand for the third straight day, they said.
Donald A. Furjanic, 34, of 6146 Division Highway, Narvon, took money from the honor-system cash box at Hess's Produce on Oct. 10 and 11, township police Sgt. ......
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 ......
2011-10-14 17:34:00
CINDY STAUFFER
A Lancaster man was charged with 19 sex offenses Friday for alleged sexual assaults against a young girl from the time she was 12 until she was 18.
Oneximo Mendez, 39, of the 500 block of Green Street, assaulted the victim at his home and other locations in the city, city police said. The......
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......
2011-10-13 13:38:00
STAFF REPORT
Police allege a Marietta man sexually assaulted two girls.
Daniel Seth Leppien, 34, of 29 W. Market St., had sexual encounters with the juveniles from July 10 through Aug. 31 in Marietta, Susquehanna Regional police said.
Leppien was charged with three counts of statutory sexual a......
2011-10-12 23:16:00
JENNIFER TODD
Federal and local authorities nabbed more than two dozen wanted people during a warrant sweep Wednesday.
Officials began in the early morning hours and took 30 people into custody throughout the day, according to a release issued by the Lancaster County Drug Task Force.
Task force......
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......
2011-10-11 15:02:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Students, prison inmates and Lancaster city residents will have a place to grow cucumbers, basil, tomatoes, pumpkins and other fresh produce next spring, thanks to a new city gardening program.
The program is the result of a unique partnership uniting the city school district, the county ......
2011-10-11 14:40:00
P.J. REILLY
When Lancaster County Prison K-9 Officer Nelson Jones led Deke outside the prison walls on a leash, Deke looked happy.
The 2 1/2-year-old German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix bounced up toward Jones' face and yipped a high-pitched bark.
Jones, speaking in German, then commanded hi......
2011-09-29 23:28:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Police said a teenager using illegal bath salts led officers on a high-speed chase Wednesday.
Bryce Edward Devonshire, 19, of 430 Mount Gretna Road, Elizabethtown, faces multiple charges including fleeing and eluding police, recklessly endangering others, endangering the welfare of childr......
2011-09-29 22:57:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A Lancaster city man was jailed Wednesday after he fired a gun toward police, investigators said.
Carl Michael Dixon Jr., 26, of the 700 block of East Marion Street, was charged with attempted homicide and illegal possession of a gun.
The incident began around 2 a.m. Wednesday, wh......
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......
2011-09-29 16:12:00
CINDY STAUFFER
An inmate committed suicide Wednesday at Lancaster County Prison, authorities said, the third such incident this year.
Prison staff found Ronald P. Snyder, 26, of Elizabethtown, hanging in his cell at 5:42 p.m. Wednesday, Lancaster City Police Lt. Todd Umstead said. Efforts to revive him ......
2011-09-29 10:45:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A man who went missing after felony sexual-abuse charges were filed against him last month is behind bars.
The Lancaster County Fugitive Task Force arrested Marlon Lambert, 36, of Lancaster, around 8:15 a.m. Thursday at his mother's home in the 400 block of Fremont Street, city police sai......
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 ......
2011-09-27 14:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Law enforcers nabbed a sleeping fugitive Tuesday morning charged with raping an unconscious person last year in Elizabethtown.
Local deputy sheriffs and state police troopers arrested Ronald Snyder Jr. about 8 a.m. at his girlfriend's Bainbridge home.
Snyder, out on bail for a rap......
2011-09-26 13:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The two Lancaster city men were asked to leave a friend's home at some point Saturday morning.
But, apparently, Anthony Davis and Derrick Stephens didn't leave empty-handed.
Minutes after the resident asked the men to leave, police said, she saw them walking along her block &mdash......
2011-09-26 11:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An East Earl Township man is in prison, charged with firing shots at his neighbors, then fighting with police officers.
Police said Robert Lee Donough, 47, assaulted a pair of police officers, injuring both of them during a tussle Sunday at his home on Chimney Lane.
Minutes earlie......
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......
2011-09-23 21:09:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Four Lancaster County residents — including an elderly man — were charged this week after a widespread heroin-dealing sting.
State attorney general agents charged the foursome with dealing heroin at various locations here since 2010.
Two of those arrested — Carla......
2011-09-23 14:54:00
STAFF REPORT
A Lancaster city woman was charged with aggravated assault Thursday night after allegedly throwing a pot of hot oil on a man during a domestic dispute.
Julia Luz Delgado, 23, and the 32-year-old man, who was unnamed in a city police press release, were arguing over money just before 9 p.m......
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 11:21:00
CINDY STAUFFER
A Paradise woman and a Denver man were charged in connection with the thefts of $950 worth of DVDs from three supermarkets.
Melissa A. Ziegler, 27, of Lincoln Highway, was charged with eight counts of retail theft. Shane M. Gregorio, 24, of Shalom Drive, was charged with three counts of r......
2011-09-22 11:13:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Lancaster city police have arrested people for stealing lots of stuff, including scrap metal, cell phones and guns.
Officers Wednesday arrested three Maryland men, using a rented truck, for allegedly trying to steal cardboard from Costco and Walmart stores.
Yes, cardboard.
...
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......
2011-09-21 20:31:00
STAFF REPORT
Two men are facing charges after a theft and burglary spree in Warwick Township, police said.
Mark A. Dean, 25, no permanent address, and Anthony J. Osborne, 25, of 59 S. Charlotte St., Manheim, allegedly stole two vehicles and burglarized several homes before they were caught Tuesday mor......
2011-09-21 14:28:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The Lancaster County Commissioners Wednesday approved measures for programs to train emergency workers and to help inmates adjust after their release from prison.
They also heard about events this weekend that will raise money for Alzheimer's disease and cancer research.
At their ......
