Dispute mars charitable house project, leads to trespass charges
BLAIRSVILLE -- A little more than a year ago, Cheryl Ickes and her daughter, Aimee, then 12, attended a ceremony along Blairsville's South Spring Street, accepting the keys to a renovated two-story house intended as their family's new dwelling.
Tracey and Bill Kurnocik had announced plans to provide the home to Aimee and her parents, Cheryl and Michael Ickes Sr., as a project of the Jessica L. Kurnocik Charitable Foundation. The Kurnociks founded the charity in memory of their daughter who lost a battle with cancer in April 2004.
Aimee Ickes, who suffers from a rare, serious vascular disorder, never got to move into the home at 450 S. Spring St., as her parents became involved in a dispute with the Kurnociks over terms of occupying the house.
That dispute extends to furnishings and other items at the house and has escalated into a criminal case, with Cheryl Ickes, Michael Ickes Sr. and son Michael Ickes Jr., 35, all of Derry Township, each facing a charge of defiant trespass stemming from an Aug. 27 incident at the Kurnociks' home at 444 S. Spring St.
The three initially were issued non-traffic citations in the incident, but Blairsville police withdrew them and instead filed misdemeanor charges.
Following a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Blairsville District Judge Jennifer Rega bound all three defendants over to Indiana County Common Pleas Court, setting an unsecured $5,000 bond for each.
They also were ordered to have no contact with the Kurnociks.
During the hearing, Tracey Kurnocik testified that on the morning of Aug. 27 she discovered members of the Ickes family "going through our garbage" in the Kurnociks' back yard.
She said they failed to leave when she asked them to, and she eventually called for police assistance.
In a criminal complaint she filed before Rega, Blairsville police officer Jill Gaston indicated she received Tracey Kurnocik's call at about 12:15 p.m.
Gaston said when she arrived Michael Ickes Sr. and his son were tying a table or similar item to the top of a mini-van in an adjacent alley and Cheryl Ickes was sorting through garbage. Gaston said she asked Cheryl Ickes to also get off the property and she complied after "two or three" requests.
Gaston said she asked the family to leave, and they eventually departed.
The defendants did not testify at the hearing. But Cheryl Ickes has said the items that had been left out for garbage collection by the Kurnociks included some of her family's property left behind at 450 S. Spring St.
Ickes indicated the items her family removed from the Kurnociks' garbage included a television stand and an "antique" card table.
According to Cheryl Ickes, before plans for her family to occupy the Spring Street house went awry, they took to the dwelling items from their former apartment in Josephine as well as new furnishings that had been in storage since area companies donated them for Aimee.
Cheryl Ickes indicated the family has not been able to retrieve many of the items, including personal photographs.
Tracey Kurnocik testified Wednesday that the Ickes family was sent several letters requesting that they remove their items from the renovated house.
She said the family "didn't respond, and it became the property of our foundation."
Kurnocik added that the letters warned that the items could be disposed of if not retrieved. "We're not a storage facility," she said.
Cheryl Ickes has said she never signed for receipt of such letters.
North Huntingdon attorney Daniel Beisler, representing the Ickes family members, argued that it was reasonable for them to believe they had a right to be at the Kurnocik property once they discovered their possessions were being discarded there. "I don't think it merits a finding of criminal trespass," he said.
Regardless of that argument, Rega noted there was evidence that the defendants remained on the property after they'd been told to leave by the owner.
Assistant District Attorney Pat Dougherty pointed out that Kurnocik discovered the defendants on her property in the morning and they didn't depart until after police were called to the scene at about noon.
Under cross-examination, Gaston indicated she didn't know whose property the garbage was and she didn't require the Ickes family to return items they'd taken.
"They were talking about a civil issue with the property," she said. "I told them to work it out with their attorney."
Tracey Kurnocik said she wasn't able to assess if damage had been done to her property during the Aug. 27 incident. She said she began to experience tachycardia and that Gaston summoned an ambulance to take her to a hospital.
