Women plead guilty to INS charges
Two women from Armenia have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to a charge of possession of a false immigration document when they were stopped at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Lusik Rustamyan, 56, presented two counterfeit Immigration and Naturalization stamps to an INS inspector at the airport on Sept. 23, prosecutors said. On the same day, Syuzanna Gharibyan, 29, was in possession of six counterfeit INS stamps when she and two young children appeared before inspectors.
The women, who live in the same home in Glendale, Calif., were immediately sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Cindrich to 18 months' probation, prosecutors said. There was no word of what action, if any, the women face from immigration officials.
Jury indicts Ohio man on conspiracy charge
A Youngstown, Ohio, man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on a charge of conspiracy for being involved with a group of individuals who cashed counterfeit checks at various banks throughout the region, prosecutors said.
Wickie William Tutt Jr., 32, produced the bogus paychecks and recruited various individuals to cash them, prosecutors said. Tutt then split the proceeds with his fellow conspirators, prosecutors said.
Beltzhoover
Neighbors critical but stable after stabbing
A pair of Beltzhoover neighbors apparently stabbed each other in the abdomen Friday afternoon.
Both male victims, 43 and 42, who live next door to one another in the 200 block of Taft Avenue, were in critical but stable condition last night at Mercy Hospital. Names were not available.
One of the victims called police about 5 p.m. to report that he'd been stabbed, police said. The other victim alerted neighbors, who also called police.
No charges have yet been filed, police said. Police did not know whether the men had been arguing before the incident.
Highland Park
Woman critical after hand, neck stabbing
A Highland Park woman was stabbed in the hand and neck Friday night outside her apartment.
Police did not release the victim's name or age, but said her wounds were not fatal. Last night, she was in critical condition, undergoing surgery at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, police said.
By the time police arrived, Pittsburgh police Officer Wayne Wilson said, "she had lost quite a bit of blood."
No arrests have been made and police said they have only a vague description of the assailant.
North Side
38-year-old man's body found in river
Boaters early Friday found the body of a Penn Hills man floating in the Ohio River.
Tony Mastermonico, 38, was found floating face down in the river across from Peggy's Harbor and Boat Club, near the West End Bridge.
Authorities are investigating. The Allegheny County Coroners Office ruled that the cause of death was drowning, but the manner of death still is under investigation.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by William F. Gross Funeral Home in Penn Hills.
Washington County
Woman accused of taking postal funds
A Washington County woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of misappropriation of postal funds.
Linda M. Legarsky, 38, of Elco, is accused of stealing more than $1,000 of United States Post Office funds between September 2001 to July 2002, prosecutors said.
A prepared release from prosecutors does not indicate if she was a U.S. Postal employee or where she worked.
Mercer County
Man pleads guilty to drug charges
A Mercer County man has pleaded guilty to charges of possession with intent to deliver and delivery of crack cocaine, federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh said.
Eric L. Hopson, of Beechwood Avenue, Farrell, was caught distributing the crack May 20, 1999, prosecutors said.
Cambria County
Prosecutors won't seek death penalty
Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Virginia man charged with killing a 3-month-old boy whose head struck a door jamb and sink before he was dropped.
Jeffrey Quinderz Smith, 23, of Chesapeake, Va., was arraigned on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, child endangerment and simple assault in the death of Mikhi Brantley.
Smith was baby-sitting Mikhi on April 8 at an apartment in Stonycreek, Cambria County, when Smith told police he shook Mikhi and splashed water on his face after the infant choked on formula.
Smith told officials that while he was trying to help Mikhi, he hit the child's head on a door jamb on the way to the bathroom and the baby's head struck a sink when Smith slipped. Mikhi died the next day from head injuries.
Residents no longer have to boil water
After seven months of filtering out impurities, thousands of Cambria County residents are being told they can stop boiling their water.
About 2,000 customers in Patton, Cambria County, have had to boil their water for cooking, drinking and washing dishes since Nov. 20 after state officials found a contamination of harmful microorganisms in the borough's 80-year-old water treatment plant.
Since the discovery of the contamination, the borough has started a series of repairs on the aging plant. Replacing the plant would cost about $8 million, Mayor Stephen Bakajza has said.
The system serves Patton, parts of East Carroll, and Cambria Heights High School and Middle School in Clearfield.
Clarion County
Man pleads guilty to arson charge
An 18-year-old man has pleaded guilty to arson and other charges after police found an unexploded bomb in his former home.
Prosecutors say Adam Golden, 18, and two other men built the bomb to intimidate the ex-girlfriend of one of the men. Golden, 18, pleaded guilty in Clarion County Court.
Golden is expected to be sentenced July 30.
A co-defendant in the case, Donnell Johnson, already has pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering another person and was sentenced to serve 12 days to two years in a Clarion County jail.
Clarion County
Man pleads guilty to arson charge
Spending the night in Bedford County's motels and hotels just got a little more expensive.
The county's 2 percent hotel-motel tax, also known as a bed tax, went into effect this month. The tax, which will be on top of the state's 6 percent sales tax, is expected to generate about $200,000 annually.
Still, Bedford County's bed tax is lower than the 3 percent tax already being charged in surrounding Cambria, Somerset and Blair counties.
Motel owners say the tax will have little impact on lodgers. The county's visitors bureau has yet to decide how to spend the revenue, although officials expect the money will be used to promote tourism.
Erie County
7 plaintiffs to drop charter school suit
Seven of the 13 people who are listed in a legal challenge to the creation of an Erie charter school will be allowed to withdraw their names from the lawsuit.
A teachers' union in Millcreek and 13 township residents were listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit aimed at stopping the Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy Charter School from opening in neighboring Erie.
But several of the individuals said they did not want to be part of a lawsuit, and some say they were surprised to see their names listed. A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association -- the parent organization of the Millcreek Education Association, which filed the lawsuit -- said the seven people will be taken off the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims it will cost the Millcreek Township School District about $425,000 a year for students attending it. Charter schools receive money from students' home districts.
Clearfield County
Agency makes salaries of employees public
A north-central Pennsylvania economic development agency has made public the salaries of all of its employees after two newspapers and a county controller's office began questioning top executives' pay.
In releasing salaries for fiscal 2003, which ended June 30, the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission said it also will reduce the length of the executives' employment contracts from 10 years to five years.
The salary list said the agency's top four executives made between $79,000 and $99,000, but tax documents showed that none of the agency's 95 employees made more than $50,000 a year earlier.
The agency's executive director, Ron Kuleck, defended the pay as fair when compared to other economic development offices across the state and country.
