The sexual assault and child pornography cases against suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez will be conducted May. Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears, following a hearing Monday afternoon, ordered jury selection in the case to begin May 14 and for testimony in the trial to start on May 17. “Given
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
The attorney for Thomas George Stanko questioned in federal court Tuesday the reliability of a witness and police interpretation of jailhouse phone calls that led state troopers to find 17 guns on his Unity property and in a storage unit.
Attorney Komron Jon Maknoon said investigators may have misrepresented what 50-year-old Stanko, who has been linked to the disappearance of former Unity resident Cassandra Gross, said in the calls to get two search warrants approved by a judge in 2018.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung countered that troopers had “ample probable cause” to believe the calls were coded discussions about guns at a Unity property he owns.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
A Westmoreland County jury acquitted a Greensburg man accused of raping an unconscious woman but couldn’t reach a verdict on another charge of sexual assault.
The jury deliberated more than three hours and returned a mixed verdict against Emmanuel Lebbie, 25, who prosecutors said assaulted a woman as she slept at a Greensburg apartment in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2019.
Jurors on Thursday found Lebbie not guilty of a single count of rape but could not reach a verdict on a felony count of sexual assault and, as a result, Judge Christopher Feliciani declared a mistrial for that offense.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
An inmate at the Westmoreland County Prison awaiting a hearing on assault and strangulation charges was arrested Friday on charges of threatening to sexually assault a female guard at the prison, according to court documents.
Nicholas J. Grindle, 33, of Jeannette, was arraigned on charges of aggravated assault, harassment and terroristic threats filed by county detectives in connection with an incident 1:45 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Hempfield jail.
Grindle was arrested Feb. 13 by Jeannette police on charges of harassment, reckless endangerment, simple assault and strangulation after they allege he choked and physically assaulted a woman.
Courtesy of Westmoreland County
Arnold police arrested Shawn M. Ferraccio after they say he tried to keep $20 of official funds and 10 packets of heroin from a controlled buy on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021.
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
Arnold police say a man who was making a controlled drug buy for narcotics agents tried to keep some of the cash he had been given, as well as some of the heroin.
After Shawn M. Ferraccio was arrested, Arnold police say he tried to run away when being taken to a holding cell at the New Kensington police department to await arraignment.