Adult bookstore neighbors still feel effect of Swearingen killing

After Ira Swearingen disappeared and was killed, fear reached a fever pitch around Highway News, an adult bookstore off Interstate 70 near where the Ohio medical consultant was kidnapped.

While criminal activity apparently has decreased since then, neighbors remain wary.

"I knew long before this (Swearingen killing) happened that things were happening down there," said Nellie Chester, who lives about two miles from the bookstore and began a crime watch group there shortly after Swearingen was reported missing.

Still, "things have quieted down," she said.

State police Trooper Diana Grady of the Washington barracks said that although interest has waned in the crime watch, residents remain concerned about the adult bookstore near the Kammerer exit.

Alexander Martos, 34, of Bentleyville pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to first-degree murder in Swearingen's 1999 death and told prosecutors that Swearingen's kidnapping was one in a string of robberies and assaults around the bookstore.

An attorney representing the bookstore says Martos' claims of participating in thousands of robberies around Highway News are "absolute nonsense."

"The incidence of problems there is no greater than at any other place offering similar hours," said Pittsburgh attorney Toby Janavitz.

A spokeswoman for Highway News declined comment on activities near the store.The bookstore is open almost around the clock, closing only from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.

Grady noted that in general, most assaults are committed between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Janavitz, who represents more than 150 adult bookstores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York, characterized Highway News as being in a rural area and patronized more by truckers. He said that the bookstore, which has been there for more than 20 years, has made concessions, and has been getting along with the township.

Chester wondered if the bookstore could be closed, comparing it to a nuisance bar. But Somerset Township Solicitor Pat Boyer said that while neighbors might not want an adult bookstore there, they can't keep one out.

"Legally, it's a permissible entity," he said.

As a result of information from Martos, authorities charged Jason Burke, 30, of Ellsworth, last week in connection with three robberies and assaults around the bookstore, not including Swearingen's. They also charged Joseph Petrick, 35, of Bentleyville, with using Swearingen's credit card.

Petrick waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday on two counts of receiving stolen property and one count of criminal conspiracy in connection with the Dec. 12, 1999, kidnapping and murder. Court documents say Petrick accepted a rope-type necklace with a gold cross charm that was bought with Swearingen's credit card and also had a compact disc player that belonged to Swearingen, .

Petrick also is charged with helping to destroy the rental car that Swearingen was driving when he has abducted.

Prosecutors believe Swearingen, 49, of Stout, Ohio, was on his way to Uniontown on business when he was abducted outside the Washington County bookstore in December 1999, then beaten, robbed and shot to death. Investigators were unable to find Swearingen's body or the murder weapon for 11 months.

Police charged Burke with robbery and assault relating to three instances between December 1997 and Valentine's Day 1998. In those three robberies, men near the bookstore were assaulted and robbed, with the thieves netting nearly $8,800 in money, credit cards, jewelry and other goods.

Washington County District Attorney John Pettit said that at least five people were assaulted and robbed at the bookstore, and they asked police not to investigate out of shame or intimidation.

Washington County Sheriff Larry Maggi, a former state trooper, once worked a case of someone who was robbed and beaten near the bookstore. Maggi retired from the State Police in 1997.

The victim declined to press charges, Maggi said.

Martos said that he, Greg Modery and Burke robbed and beat people near the bookstore on three occasions in 1997 and 1998. Modery, 31, of Peters Township, still faces trial on homicide charges relating to Swearingen's killing.

Martos was convicted of robbing the bookstore in 1996, and was sentenced to 1 ¹ / ₂ to 23 months in jail.