Rich Cholodofsky stories, Page 9
Ex-wife pleads guilty to lesser charge following testimony in child porn trial
Westmoreland County prosecutors on Monday dismissed four felony and one misdemeanor counts related to allegations of child pornography against a Mt. Pleasant woman. Jennie Lynn Dulaney, 23, pleaded guilty to an amended summary count of disorderly conduct and was ordered to pay a $25 fine. Her testimony last month led...
Democratic turnout surpasses Republicans in Westmoreland primary election
Westmoreland County’s primary election results are in the books. The county elections board gave final certification to the hundreds of races on the Republican and Democrat ballots last month, setting the stage for November’s general election. Election Bureau Director Scott Ross said nearly 54,000 ballots were cast for the May...
Mt. Pleasant man pleads guilty to torture of girlfriend’s dog
A Mt. Pleasant Township man is facing a 4-year prison sentence for the torture of a dog owned by his now former girlfriend. Zachary Robert Hixson, 30, pleaded guilty Monday to two felony counts including aggravated cruelty to animals, neglect of an animal and animal cruelty in connection with allegations...
Westmoreland write-in votes push Republican row office candidates to victory on Democratic ticket
Democratic and Republican voters in Westmoreland County nominated the same row office candidates to represent their parties in the fall general election. Republican challengers Katie Pecarchik and John Ackerman, as they did in the GOP primary, defeated current officeholders in the Democratic primaries for register of wills and coroner with...
Case against Unity man charged with murder of missing girlfriend on hold for 2 months
Kathe Gross has waited more than seven years to see justice for her daughter. Following a court hearing Tuesday, Gross learned she will have to continue to wait as a trial for the Unity man charged with her daughter’s murder was delayed yet again. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Michael...
Westmoreland GOP concedes endorsements had little impact on county primary
Days after two Republican row officers were ousted by former longtime Democrats who only recently switched to the GOP, party officials in Westmoreland County are looking for reasons why. The apparent primary victory of Katie Pecarchik over Register of Wills Jon Wian and John Ackerman’s defeat of incumbent Coroner Tim...
Judge to decide future of Ligonier pavilion
Ligonier Borough neighbors are asking a Westmoreland County judge to enforce a zoning board ruling and rescind permits that allowed owners of a boutique hotel to build and host events in an adjoining designer pavilion. A land use appeal filed this week challenged a legal claim made by owners of...
Mentally ill Greensburg mother to serve prison sentence for daughter’s attempted murder
A Greensburg woman told a Westmoreland County judge she believed her best option to protect herself and her then-6-year-old daughter from an imagined serial killer with whom she believed she had been romantically involved was to end their lives in her own way. Skye C. Naggy, 32, on Friday insisted...
Judge rejects defense call to dismiss death penalty case in New Kensington son’s slaying
A Westmoreland County judge on Friday rejected claims from a Brackenridge father facing a potential death penalty that prosecutors are biased and have insufficient evidence to prove he killed his 9-year-old son three years ago in New Kensington. Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio in a 19-page ruling found there was...
MAWC details uninterrupted service amid storm power outages
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County officials said Wednesday the agency continued to serve its more than 123,000 customers even as late April’s violent storms shut off power to hundreds of thousands of residents. “Nobody noticed we kept the water flowing,” said authority business manager Brian Hohman as administrators briefed authority...
Sheriff, county argue over Westmoreland vehicle tracking policy
A policy adopted last summer by Westmoreland County commissioners to implement GPS tracking on all county vehicles is executive overreach and a safety risk to law enforcement personnel, lawyers argued in court on Wednesday. Implementation of the policy was put on hold last fall after Sheriff James Albert filed a...
Pecarchik wins over GOP incumbent in Westmoreland register of wills primary
Westmoreland County Republicans Tuesday nominated former acting Register of Wills Katie Pecarchik to serve an abbreviated two-year term to head the office, apparently ending the short tenure of her replacement. Pecarchik, 57, of Hempfield defeated incumbent Jon Wian, who was endorsed by the GOP committee, and Kimberly Horrell, a former...
Ackerman upsets Carson to win GOP primary for Westmoreland coroner
Former Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner John Ackerman was poised to upset first-term incumbent Coroner Tim Carson in Tuesday’s Republican primary. With 294 of 306 precincts reporting, Ackerman had 53% and a nearly 1,700 vote edge over Carson, who received more than 46%. All results are unofficial until certified by the...
New Florence cheers as voters OK alcohol sales
New Florence residents voted Tuesday to approve alcohol sales in the borough. According to unofficial results, 64% of residents voted in favor of a referendum to reverse laws from the 1930s that banned beer and liquor sales in the small borough of 640. New Florence council President Jason Beatty, one...
Westmoreland’s released jail inmates offered free rides home
Westmoreland County Prison inmates have a new way to get home when their incarceration ends. An expanded program operated by Sage’s Army, a private nonprofit focused on drug addiction and recovery, is offering free rides for inmates. Janie Olson, the agency’s director of operations, told members of Westmoreland County’s Prison...
Murrysville man to serve up to 15 years in prison for 2023 fatal crash
Ten minutes after Kelly Poholsky took a call from her husband as she drove home from work Oct. 7, 2023, she came upon what appeared to be the scene of a bad accident. Only later that night did she learn the covered body that lay on the ground as she...
Westmoreland transit puts changes on hold amid funding uncertainty
Long planned revisions of Westmoreland County’s public transportation service are on hold as officials await clarity on funding. Substantial alterations in the county transit authority’s fixed-route bus system were expected to be launched this year, including the start of a pilot project to convert a small portion of the service...
New Florence voters to decide if post-Prohibition alcohol ban is lifted
When Becky Richey and her husband opened C&T’s Pizza in New Florence a quarter-century ago, it never occurred to them that their customers couldn’t enjoy a cold brew with their meal. A referendum on Tuesday’s primary election ballot pitched by Richey could give her thirsty patrons another drink option by...
Disabled caseworker, Westmoreland County settle wrongful termination lawsuit
Westmoreland commissioners voted Thursday to pay $7,500 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a former children’s bureau caseworker who claimed he was improperly fired after one month on the job. Former Fayette County Controller Sean Lally contended he was discriminated against by supervisors in the county’s child welfare office...
Lyft driver on the lam, no shows for sentencing in North Huntingdon crash
An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday for a Lyft driver who pleaded guilty last year for her role in a drunken multi-vehicle crash in North Huntingdon left six people injured. The lawyer for Slobodanka Bulatovic, 49, of North Versailles, told a Westmoreland County judge he learned about a half-hour before...
Westmoreland Democrats to hold town hall to address proposed Trump budget
Westmoreland County Democrats will convene a town hall meeting next week in Greensburg to address potential cuts in federal social service programs. The event, scheduled for 6 p.m. May 19 at Greensburg Hose Co. No. 1, will feature former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner...
Construction delays cause turbulence for Palmer airport expansion project
Delays have left construction of a $22 million new terminal building at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport at least three months behind schedule, officials confirmed Tuesday. Delivery of the domestic steel needed to erect the 32,000-square-foot expansion of the main terminal building was slated to arrive earlier this spring but now...
Eberly family disheartened over PSU Fayette campus potential closing
Robert Eberly Jr. is keenly aware that part of his family’s legacy hangs in the balance as a decision looms about the future of the Penn State campus named for his father. Renamed Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus in 2004, the site in the largely rural county is among...
Daughter’s threat against mother allowed as evidence in upcoming murder trial
Evidence that a New Florence woman threatened to kill her mother years before she and two teen-aged boys, according to Westmoreland prosecutors, conspired to commit murder is admissible at trial, a judge ruled Monday. Prosecutors contend that investigators overheard Melissa Sue Fox-Beacom say to her mother, “I am going to...
Incumbent, former deputy seek Republican nomination for Westmoreland coroner
Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson and his Republican challenger worked together in the office for about two months in early 2022. Now, three years later, former Deputy Coroner John Ackerman wants Carson’s job. Carson said the changes and upgrades he instituted during his first term in office warrant his reelection...
