Chuck Biedka stories, Page 7

A Pittsburgh man was sentenced Thursday in federal court to serve 33 months in prison for selling drugs and violating terms of his earlier release. According to a federal court press release, Senior U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose imposed an 18-month sentence on Tory Bryant, 32, for selling drugs...

Two men have been ordered to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting a woman outside the Leechburg Elks this summer. District Judge James Andring dismissed an attempted rape charge against Justin James Beattie, 30, of Leechburg and Ethan Dempsey, 23, now of Greensburg However, Andring ordered the men to...

A $240,000 state grant will add handicapped parking at Laube Hall in Freeport as well as improve the parking lot. The grant was announced Tuesday. When the hall was built in the 1960s it didn’t have handicap access. “It’s quite a distance from the parking lot to the front doors,”...

Freeport Community Park is getting a $240,000 Commonwealth Finance Authority grant to repair parking lots and walking trails. State Sen. Joe Pittman and Rep. Jeff Pyle said Tuesday some of the state’s Marcellus Impact fee was earmarked for community parks through the state’s Greenways, Trails and Recreation program. The repair...

Lower Burrell will get $50,000 in state money to make repairs to Veterans Central Park. The city requested a little more than $172,400 to upgrade the park at Bethel and Schreiber streets. The park is one of several maintained by the city. The Commonwealth Financing Authority grant was announced by...

A Turtle Creek woman was sentenced to four years of probation in a federal drug trafficking case, according to the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh. Shyanne Johnson, 27, was the last person sentenced in the conspiracy. Prosecutors said a June 2016 federal wiretap revealed that Johnson traveled to Mechanicsburg, Pa., to...

State police arrested 52 people for drunken or drugged driving and confiscated about $17,000 in cash during patrols last weekend in Armstrong, Butler and Beaver counties, according to a report. Police said one driver led them on a chase early Saturday before he was stopped near Rural Valley in Armstrong...

Leechburg police say that when Carlin Mitchell Quinn allegedly dug through two building walls to rob a bank, he made off with — change. No bills, about $1,400 in coins. “That’s my understanding,” Patrolman Mark Pollick said. Quinn, 27 of West Leechburg, is charged with robbing the Leechburg First Commonwealth...

Gilpin police officers are updating their on-the-job technology. The department was authorized by supervisors Monday to buy four body cameras for officers. Police Chief Chris Fabec also was authorized to install computers in the two patrol vehicles. He also will buy two desktop computers for use by officers in the...

A former Arkansas man was sentenced to serve more than 12 years in prison for using the internet to meet a Western Pennsylvania girl, with whom he had sex. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak imposed the sentence Tuesday on Alastair Lee Stewart, 27. Prosecutors said Stewart used a...

A Freeport woman was treated for smoke inhalation after a fire late Monday night in her Washington Street home, fire officials said. There were no other injuries. The woman, her husband and child were at home but able to get out, Freeport police Chief Jeff Swiklinski said. The family names...

Gilpin Supervisors on Monday hired a second fulltime police officer and two part-time officers. It may be the first time in more than a decade for the township to have two full-time officers, Supervisor Chairman Charles Stull said. Police Chief Chris Fabec said Patrolman Chad Shoupe is now a full-time...

A Vandergrift man is accused of trading $100 in crack cocaine for stolen jewelry, including a $15,000 Rolex watch. A criminal complaint filed in the case against Levern Baccus, 38, said a Vandergrift couple reported the missing jewelry to borough police on Sunday. The missing items included the Rolex, two...

A passenger on a Port Authority of Allegheny County bus was taken to the hospital after the bus collided with a car Monday morning in Glassport. Port Authority police allege the car went through a stop sign, spokesman Adam Brandolph said. The crash is under investigation, he said. The collision...

Officials said no one was injured in a basement fire that broke out in a Lower Burrell home Friday afternoon. The fire at 155 Craigdell Road was reported around 12:30 p.m. Firefighters rescued two dogs and two exotic birds. Officials said no one was home when smoke filled the residence...

Arnold police and Westmoreland County detectives are investigating the discovery Friday afternoon of two bodies inside a home on the city’s Fifth Avenue. The bodies of two men were found inside 1531 Fifth Ave. around 1 p.m., according to officials at the scene. Police did not immediately comment on the...

Leechburg Area School District and its teachers union have a new, tentative contract. Both the district and the union still have to formally approve the proposed five-year deal for the district’s 63 teachers, but Superintendent Tiffany Nix said negotiators for both sides OK’d it. If approved, the so-called “early bird”...

DNA evidence helped police identify a man who they said made off with nearly $1,400 last year after tunneling into a Leechburg bank, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. Carlin Mitchell Quinn, 27, of West Leechburg, is accused of stealing $1,371 from First Commonwealth Bank at 152 Main St....

Last year, rain dampened attendance at the Kiski Township Police Department’s Touch A Truck event. This year, the forecast is for much brighter skies for Touch A Truck II on Saturday. It will again be held at the River Road Auto Sales at 2118 River Ave. in North Apollo. Various...

A federal judge sentenced a Pittsburgh man to prison for gun and drug violations. Lamont Willis, 47, was sentenced to eight years and five months in prison followed by six years of supervised release. The sentenced was handed down by U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon. Court records show Willis pleaded...

A Lower Burrell man is in the Butler County Jail, accused of nearly running down a state trooper at a DUI checkpoint over the weekend. Terrell Eugene Leonard, 27, of Craigdell Road faces nine charges, including felony aggravated assault on a police officer. Police said the incident began Saturday night...