NEW CASTLE —
Police say they thought a western Pennsylvania woman might have been overmedicating herself with painkillers until she brought them home video proving her neighbor was stealing her prescription drugs.
Online court records don't list an attorney for 30-year-old Erica Rossi, who has been charged by Shenango Township police with stealing her 66-year-old neighbor's drugs.
Township police say they couldn't find evidence of any break-ins so the alleged victim set up a video camera. Police say it shows Rossi entering the woman's bedroom, where the pills were stolen.
Township officer William Phillips tells WPXI-TV that the victim "went above and beyond. This is something most people wouldn't think of. She did a great job."
Mom: Son, 23, didn't snatch old woman's cross
NEW CASTLE — The mother of a 23-year-old western Pennsylvania man jailed on charges that he ripped the gold cross necklace from the neck of an 87-year-old woman says that's not what happened.
Instead, Melissa Micco tells WPXI-TV that her son, 23-year-old Michael Yesko, merely took the necklace in exchange for $40 he was owed — and never physically ripped it off the woman's neck.
Whatever the case, online court records show Yesko, of Shenango Township, has waived his right to a preliminary hearing on robbery and other charges and is now set to stand trial in the Sept. 11 incident.
New Castle police contend Yesko asked to speak with the victim's son. Told he wasn't home, police say Yesko began writing down his phone number to give to the woman's son before snatching the cross.
New $38 million Corry hospital set to open Sunday
CORRY — The new Corry Memorial Hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania is set to open Sunday.
The hospital was built on a donated 42-acre site behind the town's Wal-Mart store. Funds for the $38 million facility include $35 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development funds. The hospital is located about 25 miles southeast of Erie.
The new hospital will have 20 inpatient beds, all in private rooms with separate bathrooms that will enable a family member to stay overnight if necessary.
Officials say the old hospital had room for 100 inpatient beds, but even the 25 beds the old hospital maintained — all in double rooms — were rarely filled.
The hospital treats about 10,000 patients in its emergency room each year, and the hospital's new design reflects the outpatient emphasis.
1 crash results in 2 DUIs for western Pa. dad, son
IRWIN — Western Pennsylvania police say a father and son had both been drinking before the younger man crashed into a utility pole and was then given a ride home by his father.
Online court records don't list attorneys for 30-year-old Adam Augustine and his father, 61-year-old Francis Augustine, both of Irwin. They face preliminary hearings on drunken driving charges Oct. 30.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Thursday that Adam Augustine crashed his vehicle in Penn Township on Sept. 16 after golfing and watching football earlier that day.
Adam Augustine then called his father for a ride home. Police say Francis Augustine had been drinking at home before police on their way to the crash encountered their vehicle, also containing a woman identified as Adam's mother and Francis Augustine's wife.
Police say all three were arguing about who should drive.
UGI withdraws permit for NE Pa. compressor station
WILKES-BARRE — An energy company has withdrawn its application for key permit needed to build a natural gas compressor station in a northeastern Pennsylvania community after a zoning board refused to grant the builder a special exception.
The Department of Environmental Protection said Wednesday that UGI Energy Services withdrew its air quality permit for the proposed station in West Wyoming, Luzerne County.
The county's zoning hearing board rejected a special exception for the station on Sept. 4.UGI has until Oct. 4 to appeal that decision to county court.
UGI is building a 27-mile pipeline to move gas from wells in north Pennsylvania counties to the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area.
Councilman Peduto to run for Pittsburgh mayor
PITTSBURGH — A popular city councilman has filed paperwork necessary to raise funds for a run in the Democratic primary next year against Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
And Councilman Bill Peduto has picked up a powerful political ally in the process.
Even before Peduto announced the filing Thursday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced he wanted to be the first to contribute to Peduto's campaign.
Fitzgerald, also a Democrat, was elected in November.
Peduto spokesman Eric Hagarty says the councilman won't formally announce his candidacy until after the November general election.
Peduto has run for mayor twice before. He lost in 2005 to Bob O'Connor who died in office and was replaced by Ravenstahl, who was city council president at the time. Peduto also ran briefly in 2007, but dropped out before the primary.
Witness describes killing of state wildlife officer
GETTYSBURG — A passenger riding along with a man who killed a Pennsylvania Game Commission officer investigating them for deer poaching says the shooter told him before the killing that he wouldn't go back to jail.
Ryan Laumann says he and Christopher Johnson knew they were in legal trouble when Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove pulled them over on the night of Nov. 1, 2010 after they killed a deer near Gettysburg.
That's when Laumann says Johnson, a felon in possession of a firearm, told him he wasn't going back to jail. Laumann told the jury hearing Johnson's murder trial Wednesday that Johnson fired at the officer's vehicle three more times after the initial exchange of gunfire.
Johnson's attorney has said her client didn't intend to kill Grove.
Testimony continues Thursday.
Defense: Money motivates cops' sex assault accuser
SCRANTON — Attorneys for two northeastern Pennsylvania police officers charged with sexually assaulting an underage girl say their accuser fabricated the allegations for monetary gain.
A Lackawanna County judge on Wednesday granted Old Forge police Capt. Jamie Krenitsky's request for access to the now-23-year-old alleged victim's financial records.
Krenitsky and his boss, Chief Larry Semenza, are both accused along with a former borough firefighter of sexually abusing the woman between 2004 and 2007.
Kenitsky's attorney says student loan debt could give the accuser reason to lie. The Times-Tribune of Scranton reports prosecutors slammed the request as a "fishing expedition."
Investigators say Krenitsky admitted sexual contact with the alleged victim and apologized during a recorded phone call.
Education department apologizes to Pa. school
BETHLEHEM — State education officials have apologized to a Pennsylvania school district that was cleared in a cheating probe.
The state Department of Education said last week in announcing the results of the annual Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests that Bethlehem Area School District would be subject to increased monitoring after an investigation into its test scores was closed.
District officials complained the state unfairly suggested teachers had changed students' answers despite an investigation concluding the high number of wrong-to-right erasures were because of over-proctoring.
The education department says Bethlehem will not be subject to enhanced monitoring.
Education Secretary Ron Tomalis attributed falling PSSA scores to enhanced test security measures to prevent adults from altering student answers. But educators blame falling scores on hefty budget cuts and teacher layoffs.
Man banned from casino returns after court hearing
BETHLEHEM — Police say a man banned from a Pennsylvania casino doubled down on a bad bet when he left a hearing for a defiant trespassing charge and headed straight to the same casino.
Forty-seven-year-old Chun Zhu is being held at Northampton County Prison following his arrest Wednesday at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem.
State police say Zhu, of Quincy, Mass., had been banned from the casino in July then was charged with defiant trespass after he visited it again on Sept. 4.
It was immediately after a hearing on that charge that investigators say he returned yet again with casino security on his tail.
Zhu is jailed on $5,000 bail. Court records don't list an attorney for him.
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