Attorney General: Charges Filed Against Exeter Township (Luzerne County) Officials

Four Exeter Township officials are facing charges for inflated billing on a contract for an EMA building nearly a decade ago, state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane announced today.
 
Charged were supervisors John E. Coolbaugh, Richard E. Overman, James W. Douse, and current secretary and former supervisor Mary F. Martin.
 
According to Kane, the case was referred to her office by Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis due to lack of resources.
 
According to the criminal complaint, the township received a $50,400 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) towards the cost of erecting a pre-fabricated EMS building in 2006.

Read more:   http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153521649/

Motion To Make Leighton Pay ‘Gas-Gate’ Money Gets No Support At Council Meeting

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Thursday’s city council meeting featured one minute of agenda business followed by an hour-long free-for-all.

Council members, Mayor Tom Leighton, candidates in next month’s primary and members of the public sparred over long-standing hot topics — including a suggestion to sue Leighton to recover money Wilkes-Barre paid in fines for not documenting how city employees used city-owned gasoline.

First, council unanimously approved motions to suspend the city’s open container law for two upcoming downtown events: The Fine Arts Fiesta on May 14-17 in Public Square, and the Osterhout Free Library’s Rooftop Party at the Intermodal Transportation Center on Aug. 7.

The open-container suspensions “only apply to malted and brewed beverages and not to wine and liquors” and only to the sites and times of the planned events: The eastern corner of Public Square from 3 p.m. until close for the four-day Fine Arts Fiesta, and the rooftop and fourth floor of the transportation center’s parking garage, from 5 to 8 p.m., for the rooftop party.

Then the fireworks started with public comments in the packed council chamber.

Read more:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/motion-to-make-leighton-pay-gas-gate-money-gets-no-support-at-council-meeting-1.1869350

Violence Continues With Another Shooting In Wilkes-Barre

WILKES-BARRE, PA — City police said a man was found with a gunshot wound in the area of 247 S. Welles St. just before 1:30 a.m. Monday.

Police did not say where the man, whose name was not released, suffered the gunshot wound. The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment, police said.

No further information was released.

The victim is the seventh person to be shot in the city within five days. Two of those shootings turned fatal.

Read more:

http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/152759001/

Man Found shot To Death In Wilkes-Barre Residence

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Three shootings. Three days. Two dead.

After more than six months without a gunfire-related homicide in Wilkes-Barre, city police investigated three separate shootings this week — two of them hours apart on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, a vigil in support of non-violence is planned for Public Square tonight.

The latest investigation concerns the shooting death of Peter Bielecki Jr., 49, at his home at 70 Carey Ave.

Read more:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/man-found-shot-to-death-in-w-b-residence-1.1858235

Police Charge Man Shot By Wilkes-Barre Officer

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HANOVER TOWNSHIP, PA — The man shot and wounded by police in a Hanover Township parking lot was hit Thursday with felony assault and drug trafficking charges alleging he tried to run down two officers while speeding away from a crack deal he made with a police informant, according to court documents.

Bong Bob Kim, 30, of 9 Harkins Lane, Wilkes-Barre, remained hospitalized at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township on Thursday night as state police filed charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, criminal use of a communication facility, drug trafficking, fleeing police and reckless endangerment.

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis on Thursday night identified Wilkes-Barre police Officer Joseph Sinavage as the officer who shot Kim.

According to a police affidavit filed in court, a state police vice unit and Wilkes-Barre police were conducting a joint drug operation at about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the area of the Family Dollar on Carey Avenue when things went awry.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/police-charge-man-shot-by-w-b-officer-1.1791355

Crime Spree Starts In Hazleton, Ends In New York City

Downtown Hazleton, PA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HAZLETON, PA — A 125-mile crime spree Friday morning that started in Hazleton and ended in New York City involved the kidnapping of one woman, the attempted kidnapping of another and a dramatic ending when a stolen Cadillac Escalade crashed on the George Washington Bridge, police said.

Authorities said a 33-year-old man from New York allegedly kidnapped a woman by force from her residence on North Church Street Friday morning and was captured hours later after the bridge crash.

At a news conference, Hazleton Police Chief Frank DeAndrea identified the suspect as Luis Figueroa. Court records list Figueroa’s address as Walter Avenue, Bronx, New York.

According to DeAndrea, Hazleton police responded to 149 N. Church St. at about 8:30 a.m. after a man armed with a shotgun attempted to abduct a pregnant woman. One of the women in the house had a protection-from-abuse order against Figueroa, the chief said.

Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/1448833/Crime-spree-starts-in-Hazleton-ends-in-New-York-City

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, Hazleton Police Chief Hail Success

HAZLETON, PA — Attorney General Kathleen Kane and Police Chief Frank DeAndrea pointed to the successes of Kane’s Mobile Street Crime Unit on Wednesday and asked residents of Hazleton and across the commonwealth to help the success continue.

At the urging of state Sen. John Yudichak to address violent drug-related crime plaguing Northeastern Pennsylvania, Kane organized the Region X Intensive Mobile Proactive Anti-Crime Team — IMPACT — task force and deployed it to Hazleton in September to dismantle gang-run drug trafficking networks.

The approximately 20-member team, composed of federal, state, county and municipal law enforcement officers, racked up more than 120 arrests and seized about 35,000 packets of heroin, quantities of crack cocaine, numerous vehicles, handguns, rifles, an assault weapon and thousands of dollars in cash, with many of the items on display at a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday.

Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, noted that a 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Justice detailed the foothold that drug-trafficking organizations had established in the Hazleton area and that branched off throughout Luzerne and surrounding counties.

Read more:  http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/1206626/Kane-Hazleton-chief-hail-success

Arrest In Wilkes-Barre Homicide

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wilkes-Barre, PA – Seconds after a preliminary hearing on a robbery charge late Tuesday morning, Luzerne County detectives and city police arrested Lamar Curry-Davis, 19, for the fatal shooting of Eduardo Daniel Madera last month.

Curry-Davis, of Cleveland, Ohio, was in court before District Judge Rick Cronauer on a charge he robbed another man on Park Avenue on Nov. 23. While his attorney was arguing for a bail reduction, authorities advised Cronauer that Curry-Davis was being arrested for the killing of Madera.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/1061389/Arrest-in-Wilkes-Barre-homicide

Apparent Homicide In Wilkes-Barre

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE, PA— Authorities are considering the death of Eduardo Daniel Madera a homicide, pending a formal autopsy scheduled for this afternoon.

If the autopsy turns out as expected, the city’s murder count for 2013 rises to 12 in just over 10 months. No one has been charged as of Wednesday night in connection with the death.

Identification papers indicate Madera, 46, moved to the house at 320 Northampton St. from Kansas City, Mo., and Luzerne County’s acting Coronor William Lisman said he had been living there for a few months.

Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/965660/Apparent-homicide-in-W-B

Girl, 2, A Victim Of Forty Fort Murder-Suicide

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

FORTY FORT, PA – Police said Nicholas Shultz shot his 2-year-old daughter and then turned the gun on himself, in what the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office has ruled a murder-suicide.

Officers from Forty Fort and surrounding towns were dispatched to 52 Wesley St. at 11 a.m. Sunday on the report of a man with a gun threatening to kill himself and his daughter.

When police entered the house, they found a young girl, Camryn Lee Shultz, dead on the couch with one gunshot wound to the head, police said. Her father, Nicholas, 34, was found on the floor, also with one gunshot wound to the head, and was then transported to Geisinger Medical Center in Plains Township before eventually dying at the hospital, according to police.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/girl-2-a-victim-of-forty-fort-murder-suicide-1.1576005

Michael Onley, Known As ‘DJ Mo,’ Killed In Wilkes-Barre Shooting

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Michael Onley, the popular Wilkes-Barre disc jockey who rallied for justice after unrelated instances of gun violence claimed the lives of his younger brother and the teenager Trayvon Martin within weeks in 2012, was shot and killed early Sunday in a lot behind a Wilkes-Barre bar, authorities said.

The shooting happened around 12:15 a.m., police said, near the Outsiders Bar at 650 S. Main St. where Onley regularly worked under his professional name, “DJ Mo.” Paramedics transported Onley to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Plains Township, where he eventually succumbed to his injuries.

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis confirmed Onley’s death. It was the ninth fatal shooting in the city this year and the third in the last month.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/michael-onley-known-as-dj-mo-killed-in-wilkes-barre-shooting-1.1568090

Search Warrants Filed In Sherman Hills Shooting Of Two Children

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE, PA – Search warrants filed in Saturday’s shooting of two children in the Sherman Hills apartment complex suggest the father was upset that two men were inside the mother’s apartment in Building 328.

According to the affidavits, William Cash known as Junie, was visiting Diana Page and was allowed inside the apartment through a rear sliding glass door.  As Cash entered, a man exited the front door.

Cash asked Page what was going on in which Page did not respond.  Cash then asked his cousin to go outside and tell him what was going on inside the apartment.

As Cash was talking to his cousin, two men approached him from behind saying,  “Yo come here bro,” the affidavit says.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/782750/Search-warrants-filed-in-Sherman-Hills-shooting-of-two-children

Related Story – 2 Girls Critical, No Arrests After Shooting

http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/781467/2-girls-critical-no-arrests-after-shooting

Driver Kills Man Who Told Him To Slow Down

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the last things Fred John Kleman Jr. ever did was tell a speeding driver to slow down.

Minutes later, he was dead in what witnesses characterized as an extreme case of road rage – the furious driver sped back to the scene and ran Kleman down, then tried to beat him with a metal bar, according to state police.

“He was saying to slow down because we were worried about how they race up the street,” said Kleman’s girlfriend, Cathy Huk, 54, who said she knew the Plymouth man for about 13 years.  “He was just telling him to slow down and that guy wanted to kill him.”

State police arrested Lorenzo Burgos, 21, of 469 Third St., Plymouth, on charges of homicide by motor vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, two counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of careless driving and reckless driving.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/driver-kills-man-who-told-him-to-slow-down-1.1536993