Marc Daffner News Today

Laurel: To fair consideration. A Westmoreland County judge has agreed to consider removing himself from the case of a former police officer accused of lying. Ryan Matthew Clark, 33, of Buffalo Township is a former Arnold cop who was arrested in 2022 by county detectives and charged with filing a

A Westmoreland County judge said he will consider a request to remove himself from the case of a man accused of lying about how his patrol vehicle was damaged while working as an Arnold police officer. Judge Scott Mears asked attorney Marc Daffner to file a formal motion seeking his

A Unity man claimed Friday he cannot be prosecuted for the homicide of a former girlfriend because there is no proof she is dead. The lawyer for Thomas G. Stanko said proposed evidence recently disclosed by prosecutors that his client targeted, stalked and harassed Cassandra Gross before she went missing

A Unity man prosecutors contend killed his girlfriend, although her body hasn’t been found, was suspected of prior abuse against her and former wives, according to court filings. Thomas G. Stanko, 53, was charged in late 2022 with criminal homicide, tampering with evidence and abuse of corpse in connection with

The lawyer for a Unity man charged with killing his former girlfriend more than four years ago said authorities may not have jurisdiction to prosecute the case in Westmoreland County. Thomas Stanko maintains he did not kill Cassandra Gross, said his attorney, Marc Daffner, during a pretrial hearing Monday. Gross,

During one of their daily meetings to use drugs, Timothy Smartnick said Charles E. Ream told him a secret. They were at a hotel in Monroeville sometime in 2009 or 2010 when Ream said he went to Samantha Lang’s Derry Township home in 2007. Smartnick testified during Ream’s preliminary hearing

An Ohio man was found not guilty of attempted homicide in connection with a March 2022 shooting in Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Heights neighborhood. Neil A. Toalston, 28, of Alliance, was found not guilty following a three-day jury trial last week in Judge Jennifer Satler’s Pittsburgh court. Toalston and his girlfriend were

A Pittsburgh judge on Monday threw out charges against a former city mayoral candidate who police accused of threatening a man with a shotgun. District Judge Mik Pappas dismissed a simple assault charge against Anthony “Tony” Moreno, 54, the Republican nominee for mayor in 2021, and a harassment charge was

A judge ruled the case against the man charged in connection with the disappearance and death of Cassandra Gross will move forward.

Homicide charges against a Unity man suspected of killing Cassandra Gross were held for court Friday, despite unsuccessful searches for her body or remains in the last four and a half years since the Unity woman went missing. “Can you tell us how she died?” asked Marc Daffner, defense attorney