New Castle (KDKA) - A shooting in Lawrence County sent two teenagers to a Pittsburgh hospital this afternoon, but investigators are still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.
Emergency crews confirmed that two young men -- an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old – suffered gunshot wounds; both were flown via medical helicopter from Jameson Hospital to UPMC Presbyterian.
Police are on the scene now.
Authorities are not releasing the victims' names or conditions at this point.
http://kdka.com/topstories/New.Castle.Shooting.2.382017.html
Attempted Child Abduction
New Castle (KDKA) - Police in Lawrence County are looking for a woman suspected of an attempted child abduction.
New Castle Police tell KDKA that a 9 year old boy was in a convenience store in Union Township last weekend when they claim a woman followed them to a nearby park.
The woman allegedly tried to grab the boy from the back seat of the family's car.
Next, the woman tried to again abduct the boy--this time--when he was on the playground.
The woman got away.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.
http://kdka.com/topstories/attempted.child.abduction.2.378540.html
New Castle Police tell KDKA that a 9 year old boy was in a convenience store in Union Township last weekend when they claim a woman followed them to a nearby park.
The woman allegedly tried to grab the boy from the back seat of the family's car.
Next, the woman tried to again abduct the boy--this time--when he was on the playground.
The woman got away.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.
http://kdka.com/topstories/attempted.child.abduction.2.378540.html
Public Corruption - Gary Felasco
Gary Felasco
Action Date: September 29, 2005
Location: New Castle, PA
On September 29, 2005, Gary Felasco, the treasurer of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, was ordered to stand trial on charges he pocketed about $47,000 in tax payments. Felasco was charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, embezzlement, misapplication of entrusted property and violating the state's ethics act. Felasco allegedly diverted tax money to his personal use and hid the thefts by preventing delinquent property-tax notices from being sent to the people whose payments he stole. The state Attorney General's Office said Felasco used some of the money to pay his own delinquent taxes, buy a van and rent hotel rooms in a neighboring township where authorities have said they received complaints about a sex club Felasco allegedly helped organize.
http://frauddigest.com/fraud.php?ident=1566
Action Date: September 29, 2005
Location: New Castle, PA
On September 29, 2005, Gary Felasco, the treasurer of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, was ordered to stand trial on charges he pocketed about $47,000 in tax payments. Felasco was charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, embezzlement, misapplication of entrusted property and violating the state's ethics act. Felasco allegedly diverted tax money to his personal use and hid the thefts by preventing delinquent property-tax notices from being sent to the people whose payments he stole. The state Attorney General's Office said Felasco used some of the money to pay his own delinquent taxes, buy a van and rent hotel rooms in a neighboring township where authorities have said they received complaints about a sex club Felasco allegedly helped organize.
http://frauddigest.com/fraud.php?ident=1566
Deaths believed tied to drugs, prostitution
2 women might have been killed by someone stalking drug dens
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Women so desperate that they will climb into a stranger's car for $20 are getting extra attention from detectives and beat cops.
 |  John Beale, Post-Gazette |
| New Castle police Chief Thomas Sansone says his department raided this former crack house at 421 Waldo St., which doubled as a place of prostitution. His officers also have stepped up neighborhood patrols since the August homicides of two women who may have been prostitutes. |
The high alert began around Labor Day, after the bodies of two women were found 60 yards apart in a wooded area of Taylor, a New Castle suburb. Pennsylvania State Police have labeled both women, Mandy Sue McLaren, 24, and Tammie K. Mullins, 36, as prostitutes who became homicide victims.
Dr. Karl E. Williams, a forensic pathologist who performed autopsies on McLaren and Mullins, said neither was shot or stabbed.
But he agreed with the police assessment that the dumping of their bodies, like litter in the brush, seemed to be the work of a killer. Williams said he was doing further testing on tissues to determine how the women died.
In New Castle, McLaren and Mullins were well-known to city police. Both had been accused this year in theft cases. Mullins struggled with drug addiction. McLaren had a felony record, having served five years in jail for third-degree murder in the starvation of one of her twins. The 8-month-old boy died when McLaren was 17.
Despite those troubles, neither woman had a record for prostitution or related crimes, such as loitering. Given this history, New Castle police Chief Thomas Sansone said, he was puzzled by the state's assertion that they were selling themselves on the streets.
"We never arrested either of them for prostitution," he said. "I can't speculate why the state would say that."
Though Sansone said he was not convinced that the women were prostitutes who were killed by a customer, neither could he dismiss the possibility. So he has ordered his 35-member department to spend more time in neighborhoods where the drug and sex trades converge.
"If they were prostitutes, and if customers were picking them up, it's certainly a possibility that they were killed that way," Sansone said.
Pennsylvania State Police officers said street-level sources described McLaren and Mullins as prostitutes who frequented the Big Run apartments, a public housing complex on New Castle's South Side. Neither woman was ever a public housing tenant, said Robert Evanick, executive director of the Lawrence County Housing Authority.
But investigators said McLaren might have stayed for a time in a publicly subsidized apartment that was the listed address of a woman named Stacy Lynn Kendall. Kendall, 19, received a wave of media attention in July after her arrest on suspicion of selling herself to men who were 83 and 71 years old. Police said she charged them $6 and $4.
Perhaps 10 to 15 women in this town of 25,300 people regularly sell their bodies to pay for their next hit of crack or heroin, Sansone said. Most of the prostitution trade is tied to crack houses, which New Castle police were focused on even before the deaths of McLaren and Mullins.
Sansone said his officers had raided four crack houses in the past 30 days. Each building was boarded up after city inspectors hit the owners with building-code violations.
One of those crack houses was at 421 Waldo St., where a prostitute says a customer raped her in April or May. The woman did not report the alleged assault until Aug. 31, the day the bodies of McLaren and Mullins were discovered in the woods south of the city.
State police have arrested Michael R. Tackett, 34, of West Pittsburg, a New Castle suburb, in the rape case.
State Trooper Joseph J. Vascetti filed an affidavit outlining the allegations against Tackett. It says Tackett cruised Long Avenue in his silver pickup truck early one spring morning and met a 31-year-old woman. He told her to follow him to the house on Waldo Street, where he would pay her for sex. She agreed.
But, the woman told police, she reneged when Tackett insisted on anal sex. She said Tackett threw her face-down onto a couch and forced himself on her. At various points during the rape, she said, he pulled a handgun and put her in a choke hold.
Another woman, this one 19, told Vascetti that Tackett had pulled a gun on her the night of Aug. 25. The woman said they were in his truck and he demanded oral sex. She said she refused and was able to get away. He has not been charged in that case.
State troopers used warrants to search Tackett's house and truck and to obtain samples of his hair, blood and saliva. Since then, they have said they do not consider Tackett a suspect in the deaths of McLaren or Mullins. He is free on bail.
Perhaps the only certainty about the homicide case is that McLaren and Mullins died at different times.
Lawrence County Coroner Russ Noga estimated that Mullins' body had been in the woods three to four weeks before it was found. In contrast, McLaren's body was there two to four days.
Mullins' husband, Jeffrey, reported her missing Aug. 5, a few days after he said he last saw her. Sansone said Jeffrey Mullins had told her to leave their home because of her habitual drug use. Even when they lived together, she often disappeared for a few days at a time, Sansone said.
Jeffrey Mullins reported her missing this time because she did not cash a government benefits check as soon as it arrived, Sansone said.
No missing-person report was filed on McLaren. Police are checking tips that she was seen getting into a pickup truck Aug. 26, five days before her body was found.
Even with two unsolved deaths hanging over the town, police have no expectation that prostitution will lessen. Sansone said women who court strangers to pay for their addictions want nothing to do with his officers or their warnings.
First published on September 11, 2005 at 12:00 am
Woman Allegedly Sells Favors to Elderly
NEW CASTLE, Pa. - Police charged a 19-year-old woman with selling sexual favors to two elderly men for $4 and $6 each. Stacy L. Kendall, 71-year-old William R. Claypool and 83-year-old Carmen A. Nocera were arrested just outside New Castle on Friday.
Claypool paid Kendall $4 for a sexual favor and Nocera paid $6, police said.
Shenango Township police Chief Allan Nocera said the arrests occurred during a police sweep of an area where residents recently had complained of drugs, sex trafficking and gunfire.
Police on Monday filed misdemeanor charges of prostitution and solicitation against all three defendants.
Kendall and Claypool didn't answer repeated calls to their homes. Carmen Nocera didn't immediately return a message left at his home.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=194931&source=r_oddities
LAWRENCE COUNTY Inmates, ex-guard charged with bringing drug to jail
City police are investigating more drug use at the jail.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Seven people, including a former corrections officer, have been charged with bringing OxyContin into the Lawrence County jail.
City police were called to the jail after inmate Glenn Benegasi was taken to Jameson Hospital after reporting that he had taken OxyContin, a prescription drug, and was in pain.
Police said he was treated at 2:20 a.m. July 8 and told officials he had taken four 80 mg tablets. Court papers said Benegasi did have opiates in his system.
According to an affidavit to support the charges, Benegasi told police his grandmother, Vera Frank, 74, of North Cedar Street, who legally has a prescription for OxyContin, gave Benegasi's girlfriend 10 pills.
The girlfriend, Elena LePore, 33, of West Clayton Street, took the pills and $30 to Tire Express in New Castle and gave them to Albert Tedrow, a work-release inmate, court papers said.
Tedrow told police when he returned to the jail, he gave the pills to another inmate, Ross Edward Seliga, 34, of Logan Avenue, Sharon. The affidavit said Seliga then gave the pills to another inmate, Thomas George Farah II, 45, of Park Avenue, New Castle, who passed them on to corrections officer David B. Kennedy, 22, of Ellwood Road, New Castle.
Kennedy then went to Benegasi's cell and threw in a folded up piece of paper containing six OxyContin tablets, police said. Police said Kennedy no longer works at the jail.
Police said they have a telephone conversation taped at the jail between Benegasi, Frank, LePore and Farah discussing how the drugs would be brought into the jail.
Charges
Charges were filed Tuesday against all seven.
Benegasi, 31, of North Cedar Street, is charged with criminal conspiracy to deliver and possess a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility.
Frank, Kennedy, LePore, Tedrow, Farah and Seliga are each charged with criminal conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Frank, LePore and Farah are also charged with criminal use of a communication facility.
Investigation
Matthew Mangino, county district attorney, said the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation into drugs and contraband being brought into the jail and more arrests are pending.
Last week the district attorney's office petitioned common pleas court to halt the jail's work-release program for 48 hours to allow police to investigate how contraband is getting into the lockup. That request came after an inmate died Aug. 13 of a suspected drug overdose.
Mangino said Tedrow, the work-release inmate, and Farah, who is on child-care release during the day to care for his children, are still leaving the jail daily, but he expects their release privileges will soon be revoked.
cioffi@vindy.com
http://www.vindy.com/news/2004/aug/25/lawrence-county-inmates-ex-guard-charged-with/
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Seven people, including a former corrections officer, have been charged with bringing OxyContin into the Lawrence County jail.
City police were called to the jail after inmate Glenn Benegasi was taken to Jameson Hospital after reporting that he had taken OxyContin, a prescription drug, and was in pain.
Police said he was treated at 2:20 a.m. July 8 and told officials he had taken four 80 mg tablets. Court papers said Benegasi did have opiates in his system.
According to an affidavit to support the charges, Benegasi told police his grandmother, Vera Frank, 74, of North Cedar Street, who legally has a prescription for OxyContin, gave Benegasi's girlfriend 10 pills.
The girlfriend, Elena LePore, 33, of West Clayton Street, took the pills and $30 to Tire Express in New Castle and gave them to Albert Tedrow, a work-release inmate, court papers said.
Tedrow told police when he returned to the jail, he gave the pills to another inmate, Ross Edward Seliga, 34, of Logan Avenue, Sharon. The affidavit said Seliga then gave the pills to another inmate, Thomas George Farah II, 45, of Park Avenue, New Castle, who passed them on to corrections officer David B. Kennedy, 22, of Ellwood Road, New Castle.
Kennedy then went to Benegasi's cell and threw in a folded up piece of paper containing six OxyContin tablets, police said. Police said Kennedy no longer works at the jail.
Police said they have a telephone conversation taped at the jail between Benegasi, Frank, LePore and Farah discussing how the drugs would be brought into the jail.
Charges
Charges were filed Tuesday against all seven.
Benegasi, 31, of North Cedar Street, is charged with criminal conspiracy to deliver and possess a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility.
Frank, Kennedy, LePore, Tedrow, Farah and Seliga are each charged with criminal conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Frank, LePore and Farah are also charged with criminal use of a communication facility.
Investigation
Matthew Mangino, county district attorney, said the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation into drugs and contraband being brought into the jail and more arrests are pending.
Last week the district attorney's office petitioned common pleas court to halt the jail's work-release program for 48 hours to allow police to investigate how contraband is getting into the lockup. That request came after an inmate died Aug. 13 of a suspected drug overdose.
Mangino said Tedrow, the work-release inmate, and Farah, who is on child-care release during the day to care for his children, are still leaving the jail daily, but he expects their release privileges will soon be revoked.
cioffi@vindy.com
http://www.vindy.com/news/2004/aug/25/lawrence-county-inmates-ex-guard-charged-with/
MOTORCYCLE CRASH Family seeking homicide charges
The family has asked the state attorney general's office to review the charges.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Crystal Wilkins loved life.
So in death, it's hard for her family to accept that the person they believe is responsible isn't being charged with homicide.
Wilkins, 22, died July 14, 2003, after being thrown from a motorcycle on East Lincoln Avenue after it crashed into a parked car.
Driver Nicholas Lauro, 22, of Plank Road was charged last week with having an accident involving death while not properly licensed, a third-degree felony, and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Wilkins' mother, Susan Wilkins of Venango County, said she believes the charges -- which carry a maximum sentence of nine months in jail, a suspended driver's license and a fine -- aren't severe enough.
New Castle police said they filed homicide-by-vehicle charges against Lauro in May for the crash, but those charges were pulled by the Lawrence County District Attorney's office.
"They refused to let us file homicide-by-vehicle charges. [Assistant District Attorney] Robert Barletta said he decided with the district attorney [Matthew Mangino] which charges are filed," said New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone.
How things stand
Mangino said his office reviewed the case and believes proving homicide-by-vehicle charges, which require gross negligence, would be difficult. Previous court decisions have found that gross negligence requires more than just a violation of a traffic law such as speeding, he said.
For example, he said, gross negligence would involve driving on the wrong side of the road without headlights at midnight.
"This isn't something that was done on a whim," Mangino said of the charges filed. "We researched this and we looked at the facts of this case. We discussed it with the police on numerous occasions and we made the decision. Certainly it was a difficult decision."
He added that there were no drugs or alcohol in Lauro's system and they didn't believe they would be successful prosecuting him on a homicide-by-vehicle charge.
The district attorney added that there has been a local rule of court since 1985 that any homicide charges filed by police must first be approved by his office. He said New Castle police did not follow that rule when filing the charges in May.
But Sansone and the investigating officers believe a homicide-by-vehicle charge is warranted in the case. The law applies to anyone who recklessly or with gross negligence causes the death of another person while in violation of any law involving the use of a motor vehicle, he said.
A Pennsylvania State Police reconstructionist determined that Lauro was traveling at least 50 to 66 mph when he lost control of the 1999 Honda CBR motorcycle. The speed limit on Lincoln Avenue is 35 mph.
Officials noted that Lauro had only a learner's permit, which does not allow for passengers.
Sansone said that with the accident reconstruction determining speed and four witnesses, they have enough to follow through with the homicide-by-vehicle charge.
"In my opinion the charges we filed initially were the proper charges. I fought with the DA's office for weeks over these charges," said Lt. Tom Macri, who is in charge of traffic investigations for the department. Macri noted that the statute calls for recklessness or gross negligence.
What mother said
Susan Wilkins said she would rather let a jury decide if the homicide-by-vehicle charge is warranted. She has asked the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office to review the case but has not received a response yet.
She describes her daughter as a beautiful person who loved life. She grew up in the country but always wanted to live in the city, her mother said.
The 22-year-old, the oldest of four children, moved to New Castle from her mother's home two weeks before she was killed. Crystal Wilkins worked as a waitress at Mulligan's Restaurant on Butler Avenue and was engaged.
"Everything was just happening for her," Susan Wilkins said.
She last saw her daughter the night before her death at the New Castle Fireworks Festival. The young woman told her she was going to ride on a motorcycle with Lauro, whom she had met through mutual friends.
"I said, 'Crystal, you are going to kill yourself,'" Susan Wilkins said with tears in her eyes. "I wish I hadn't said it. Less than 18 hours later, she was dead."
"He's getting off for a reason unknown," said Sandy Glass of Pittsburgh, Susan Wilkins' sister and the victim's aunt. "I think it's because he's from a well-known family."
Lauro's father, Francis, was a member of the Neshannock school board.
The district attorney said it is unfortunate the Wilkins family has that opinion.
"We don't evaluate family background before we prosecute cases. It's unfortunate that this whole thing [involving the charges initially filed by police] had to frustrate and upset this family," Mangino said.
cioffi@vindy.com
http://www.vindy.com/news/2004/jun/23/motorcycle-crash-family-seeking-homicide-charges/
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Crystal Wilkins loved life.
So in death, it's hard for her family to accept that the person they believe is responsible isn't being charged with homicide.
Wilkins, 22, died July 14, 2003, after being thrown from a motorcycle on East Lincoln Avenue after it crashed into a parked car.
Driver Nicholas Lauro, 22, of Plank Road was charged last week with having an accident involving death while not properly licensed, a third-degree felony, and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Wilkins' mother, Susan Wilkins of Venango County, said she believes the charges -- which carry a maximum sentence of nine months in jail, a suspended driver's license and a fine -- aren't severe enough.
New Castle police said they filed homicide-by-vehicle charges against Lauro in May for the crash, but those charges were pulled by the Lawrence County District Attorney's office.
"They refused to let us file homicide-by-vehicle charges. [Assistant District Attorney] Robert Barletta said he decided with the district attorney [Matthew Mangino] which charges are filed," said New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone.
How things stand
Mangino said his office reviewed the case and believes proving homicide-by-vehicle charges, which require gross negligence, would be difficult. Previous court decisions have found that gross negligence requires more than just a violation of a traffic law such as speeding, he said.
For example, he said, gross negligence would involve driving on the wrong side of the road without headlights at midnight.
"This isn't something that was done on a whim," Mangino said of the charges filed. "We researched this and we looked at the facts of this case. We discussed it with the police on numerous occasions and we made the decision. Certainly it was a difficult decision."
He added that there were no drugs or alcohol in Lauro's system and they didn't believe they would be successful prosecuting him on a homicide-by-vehicle charge.
The district attorney added that there has been a local rule of court since 1985 that any homicide charges filed by police must first be approved by his office. He said New Castle police did not follow that rule when filing the charges in May.
But Sansone and the investigating officers believe a homicide-by-vehicle charge is warranted in the case. The law applies to anyone who recklessly or with gross negligence causes the death of another person while in violation of any law involving the use of a motor vehicle, he said.
A Pennsylvania State Police reconstructionist determined that Lauro was traveling at least 50 to 66 mph when he lost control of the 1999 Honda CBR motorcycle. The speed limit on Lincoln Avenue is 35 mph.
Officials noted that Lauro had only a learner's permit, which does not allow for passengers.
Sansone said that with the accident reconstruction determining speed and four witnesses, they have enough to follow through with the homicide-by-vehicle charge.
"In my opinion the charges we filed initially were the proper charges. I fought with the DA's office for weeks over these charges," said Lt. Tom Macri, who is in charge of traffic investigations for the department. Macri noted that the statute calls for recklessness or gross negligence.
What mother said
Susan Wilkins said she would rather let a jury decide if the homicide-by-vehicle charge is warranted. She has asked the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office to review the case but has not received a response yet.
She describes her daughter as a beautiful person who loved life. She grew up in the country but always wanted to live in the city, her mother said.
The 22-year-old, the oldest of four children, moved to New Castle from her mother's home two weeks before she was killed. Crystal Wilkins worked as a waitress at Mulligan's Restaurant on Butler Avenue and was engaged.
"Everything was just happening for her," Susan Wilkins said.
She last saw her daughter the night before her death at the New Castle Fireworks Festival. The young woman told her she was going to ride on a motorcycle with Lauro, whom she had met through mutual friends.
"I said, 'Crystal, you are going to kill yourself,'" Susan Wilkins said with tears in her eyes. "I wish I hadn't said it. Less than 18 hours later, she was dead."
"He's getting off for a reason unknown," said Sandy Glass of Pittsburgh, Susan Wilkins' sister and the victim's aunt. "I think it's because he's from a well-known family."
Lauro's father, Francis, was a member of the Neshannock school board.
The district attorney said it is unfortunate the Wilkins family has that opinion.
"We don't evaluate family background before we prosecute cases. It's unfortunate that this whole thing [involving the charges initially filed by police] had to frustrate and upset this family," Mangino said.
cioffi@vindy.com
http://www.vindy.com/news/2004/jun/23/motorcycle-crash-family-seeking-homicide-charges/