Homewood community leader Shawn Hall escaped a 15-year minimum jail term Tuesday for drug trafficking when a federal judge ruled his criminal record didn't warrant such a stiff penalty. U.S. Senior District Judge Maurice B. Cohill sentenced Hall, 28, to six years in prison and five years supervised release for helping to transport 2 kilograms of cocaine from California to Pittsburgh. Hall had pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. "Working with community groups, you know what damage the drug scene does," Cohill told Hall. [continues 308 words]
Three Allentown residents arrested this month after they allegedly tried to sell a kilogram of crack cocaine to undercover police have been ordered to remain in Lehigh County Prison. During a detention hearing last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arnold Rapoport denied bail for Roque Padilla, 46, of 137 N. Third St.; Edward Vargas, 22, of 307 N. Jordan St.; and Augustine Gutierrez, 25, of 840 Walnut St., second floor. Authorities seized a half-kilo of powder cocaine when they served a search warrant at Padilla's address. [continues 84 words]
A new methadone clinic in Braddock may be approved by the borough council, but it won't be approved by the current borough council. A public hearing on a clinic that is to be housed on the second floor of UPMC Braddock was scheduled for Monday night. However, due to an error by borough officials, the hearing has had to be rescheduled for Feb. 14, and that's after new council members will have taken their seats in January. Outgoing council member Tracy Snyder said the hearing had to be rescheduled due to a mistake in the way residents were notified of the hearing. [continues 205 words]
Eula Mae Broughton gathered her five children this weekend to take them to church, give them presents, serve them a special ham dinner and shower them with holiday hugs. In other words, she did what millions of other moms have done across America, and that is what makes this Christmas so special for her. The Allentown woman, 35, has rebounded from crack cocaine addiction, from arrests and jail time, from losing her children to foster care placement by Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families. And it all began with a chance meeting on Sept. 3, 1997, when she delivered her last child in a stranger's subcompact car. [continues 989 words]
Police searching for indoor marijuana growers cannot use high-tech sensors to "scan" the exterior of homes for unusual heat emissions unless they first obtain a search warrant, the state Supreme Court has ruled. The court, in a 6-1 ruling Wednesday, said drug agents' use of a device that detects heat from powerful indoor lights was akin to searching a home, which requires probable cause and a warrant. The case involved a 1994 arrest by Erie County drug agents. An informant had told police that marijuana plants were being grown inside a house. An Army National Guard drug officer who was helping police scanned the house from the outside with a device known informally as a "Wasp," which detects heat radiating from sources such as furnaces or human bodies. [continues 445 words]
The Justices Said Using A Heat-Detection Tool To Find Marijuana Indoors Violated The Fourth Amendment. PITTSBURGH - Police may not use a heat-revealing device to gather evidence about whether someone is growing marijuana indoors with high-powered lights, the state Supreme Court said. The court said Wednesday that a 1994 stakeout by Erie County drug agents equipped with a device that detected extreme heat violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. An informant had told Erie County police that a small indoor marijuana farm was operating in a house. [continues 321 words]
PHILADELPHIA -- Ten truck drivers were arrested on drug charges and their rigs were confiscated Tuesday after officers posed as drug dealers selling crack cocaine, police said. ``This is not only a drug issue but a public safety issue,'' police Capt. David Testa said. ``We're worried about these people driving around in their big rigs high on crack.'' After receiving complaints from residents and businesses that truck drivers were coming into the area to buy drugs, Testa said officers posed as truckers -- with trucks donated from local trucking companies - -- and purchased drugs from six known drug dealers, who were then arrested. [continues 55 words]
Reporting on a citywide sweep of drug dealers some 15 years ago left me astonished as handcuffed suspect after handcuffed suspect got hauled before magistrates working overtime. The spectacle suggested that a great blow had been delivered against the forces of evil. But while the streets may have become a little safer, the roundup had a transient effect. One drug dealer's misfortune became another's business opportunity. Before long it was time to round up a new crop of dealers. Covering court in more recent years and seeing how drug-related cases clogged the docket, I came to question the effectiveness of what politicians hail as the "war on drugs." It seemed pure folly to attempt to cure a sickness by decree. [continues 551 words]
Ed Pawlowski was livid. "You are asking me to help you, only so you can beat me up some more," he said. At the office of the Alliance for Building Communities, of which Pawlowski is executive director, I was asking for his "Comprehensive Drug Elimination Proposal." Last Sunday, I discussed how that proposal resulted in ABC getting a $125,000 federal grant to fight drug abuse and crime in Allentown's obstreperous 1st Ward. I expressed doubts about a plan that had, in Pawlowski's words, a "nebulous" approach to combating drugs. [continues 582 words]
In A Class-Action Suit, 160 Plaintiffs Challenged A Government Ban On Medical Use Of The Drug. Calling for a scientific determination of marijuana's value as a medicine, a federal judge yesterday dismissed an unusual class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the government ban on medical use of the drug. U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz said that although a handful of people had been given the drug under a federal "compassionate-use program" since the 1970s, the government is not legally obligated to extend that program to all citizens. [continues 374 words]
Pennsylvania State Trooper Antonio Romero Jr. was a turncoat in the war on drugs. A "narc" working out of the Belmont Barracks in Philadelphia, Romero last year helped a convicted drug dealer with ties to Colombian traffickers escape from state police custody in hopes of getting a $3 million payoff that never arrived. Romero, 32, of Leithgow Street near George, also had stolen nealy 50 pounds of marijuana - evidence that he had been entrusted to transport for the state police in 1997 and 1998. [continues 297 words]
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Stanley Roberts says he doesn't know how the drugs got into his body. All the NBA knows is that Roberts is no longer in the league. Roberts, a backup center for the Philadelphia 76ers, was kicked out of the NBA on Wednesday after testing positive for a prohibited drug in the first expulsion under the league's tougher drug policy. Roberts, a 7-foot center who was recently placed on the injured list, tested positive for an "amphetamine-based designer drug," the NBA said in a three-paragraph statement. A positive test calls for immediate expulsion, the league said. [continues 564 words]
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Pennsylvania women may soon be offered more protection against a dangerous date rape drug. On Nov. 9, the state House of Representatives passed a bill placing legal implications on the importation, production, sale and use of date rape drugs, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre. The proposed legislation passed the House with a unanimous vote, said state Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Centre. The bill, authored by Benninghoff, and co-sponsored by Herman, requires the substance gamma butyrolactone (GBL) to be reported and tracked by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Benninghoff said. [continues 325 words]
The 24-year police veteran broke the news to his wife Friday afternoon. He had been among 10 officers chosen for the Atlantic City department's first random drug testing, and he had flunked. Sitting at his Galloway Township home on disability since May, in constant pain from a back injury, unable to run around with his children, Detective Michael Strehle, 44, was 15 months away from retiring. "He saw everything he worked for going up in smoke," family lawyer Harry Goldenberg said yesterday. "He told his wife he was considering killing himself because he could no longer support his wife and children." [continues 409 words]
A retired officer is among the speakers who say the war on drugs is too costly. He favors regulation. Peter Christ says he never believed in the drug laws he was paid to enforce as a police officer in upstate New York. "I went on the job believing prohibition was a bad idea," Christ said. "I spent 20 years enforcing these laws thinking this was a dumb way to do it, but that's what we did." Christ and Clifford Thornton have been speaking throughout South Jersey, advocating change in the nation's drug policies to allow legalization and regulation. Christ, 53, made the last stop of his tour Friday, speaking to a group of Cherry Hill Rotarians. [continues 511 words]
It was a high-tech operation tucked into the attic of a posh home in Bucks County's most affluent suburb. Two dozen mature marijuana plants were growing hydroponically, just waiting to be cut, weighed, bagged and, authorities believe, distributed. And the expert gardener behind the secret stash was a millionaire CEO - a corporate titan who raised the pot seedlings with loving care, authorities said. Daniel Goldberg, 52, president and CEO of a New Jersey insurance company, was nabbed Saturday night in his Upper Makefield home, charged with drug possession and intent to distribute. Goldberg's 28-year-old housemate also was charged, authorities said. [continues 418 words]
Students at Lehigh University are protesting a new alcohol policy that they say dampens spirit on the campus and leads to the abuse of other drugs, like ecstasy. About 140 students rallied on Saturday and circulated a petition that demands changes in the university's Project IMPACT, which stands for Involving Multiple Partners in Achieving a Cultural Transformation. Designed to discourage binge drinking, the policy still allows legal-age drinking on the campus, but regulates the amount of alcohol at campus parties and requires that two university staff members monitor social events where alcohol is served. [continues 366 words]
ONE of Pittsburgh's district judges, Gigi Sullivan, was in court as usual yesterday. Only on this occasion she was in the dock, charged with snorting cocaine and shooting up in her chambers before cases as well as dismissing charges against her dealer in return for drugs. Ms Sullivan, 38, is accused of being in cahoots with Donald Geraci, a used car dealer, and a drug ring he led, said Mike Fisher, Pennsylvania's Attorney-General. As well as dismissing cases brought against him, Ms Sullivan allegedly tipped off Geraci when police had warrants for his arrest and when they planned to search his home. [continues 65 words]
A Pittsburgh judge facing re-election next month was accused of shooting heroin in her chambers and dismissing charges against her dealer in exchange for drugs, a prosecutor said. District Justice Gigi Sullivan was stripped of her duties after charges were announced Friday. She faces arraignment Monday and will remain on the Nov. 2 ballot for now, her lawyer said. Sullivan, 38, shot heroin snorted cocaine and misused prescription drugs before presiding over cases, state Attorney General Mike Fisher said. She is accused of accepting drugs in exchange for dismissing charges against her supplier, Donald Geraci, a used-car dealer and former restaurateur, and other dealers in a drug ring he led, Fisher said. Her attorney, Patrick Thomassey, said "these are only allegations" and that Sullivan "maintains her innocence." [end]
PITTSBURGH - A judge facing re-election next month was accused of shooting heroin in her chambers and dismissing charges against her dealer in exchange for drugs, a prosecutor said. District Justice Gigi Sullivan was stripped of her duties after charges were announced Friday. She faces arraignment Monday and will remain on the Nov. 2 ballot for now, her lawyer said. Ms. Sullivan, 38, shot heroin, snorted cocaine and misused prescription drugs before presiding over cases, state Attorney General Mike Fisher said. [continues 203 words]
Prosecutor Says She Gave Breaks To Dealer PITTSBURGH -- A judge facing re-election next month was accused of shooting heroin in her chambers and dismissing charges against her dealer in exchange for drugs, a prosecutor said. District Justice Gigi Sullivan was stripped of her duties after charges were announced Friday. She faces arraignment Monday and will remain on the Nov. 2 ballot for now, her lawyer said. Sullivan, 38, shot heroin, snorted cocaine and misused prescription drugs before presiding over cases, state Attorney General Mike Fisher said. [continues 199 words]
Donald Geraci, reputed head of an extensive cocaine distribution ring in the Penn Hills area, knew he was in trouble. So when Geraci, 37, was called in May before a statewide grand jury investigating his operations, he decided to talk about his relationship with Springdale District Justice Gigi Sullivan, who he said supplied him protection in exchange for drugs. Geraci, of Hamil Road, Penn Hills, bluntly said yes, he was a cocaine dealer, and one with a powerful ally. Sullivan had been his friend for about three years, he testified, but toward the end of the summer of 1997 theirs became a quid pro quo relationship. [continues 923 words]
Big Tobacco is positioning itself above the law - forever - by paying off Big Government. Big Tobacco is limiting its fiscal losses - forever - by burdening smokers and taxpayers with its huge liability for America's deadliest drug addiction. We must stop Big Tobacco. This is the essence of the Master Settlement Agreement - the "MSA" - between Big Tobacco and the state governments, including Pennsylvania. Although they have escaped public debate until now, the above realizations have animated my litigation against its implementation. I want to fix the MSA, not kill it. [continues 744 words]
Judge Cynthia Rufe yesterday sentenced a Sellersville man to 11to 23 months in jail and ordered the confiscation of property worth $135,765 for his part in what authorities say was one of the biggest marijuana distribution rings in Bucks County history. Paul E. Schmechel, 44, also will spend five years on probation after completing his sentence in Bucks County Prison, said Assistant District Attorney Gary Gambardella. Schmechel, who pleaded guilty to numerous charges stemming from a yearlong investigation by Bucks County detectives and other police departments, will lose an RV camper, other vehicles, computers and other belongings in the property seizure.He and John Bowie, 54, of Tinicum Township, were arrested in April after police from several departments gathered evidence of an operation that authorities said made more than $1 million a year from illegal drug sales. [continues 141 words]
A Del. Police Force Takes An Anti-Drug Message To The Region's Classrooms. For the police officers of Heroin Alert, victory is saving teenagers like Justin Hottes. On the day he attended the Heroin Alert program at his high school in New Castle, Del., Hottes, 17, had already bought a $12 bag of the drug, enough to get high three times. He planned to snort it the next night at home. "I wanted to try something new," he said. As the anti-drug assembly started at William Penn High School the followingday in spring 1998, Hottes decided to tune it out. But he couldn't. [continues 704 words]
Critics Says Proposal Rewards Lawbreakers Drug users are not entirely responsible for their addictions and would be able to sue their dealers in civil court under a bill up for a vote in the state House this week. "People get sucked into it and lose their free will, so to speak," said the bill's sponsor, James R. Roebuck Jr., D-Philadelphia. "This is another tool to help the fight against drugs, the scourge on communities." The bill is an attempt to hurt drug dealers where it hurts most -- their profits. [continues 717 words]
In a political world where more and more politicians let their pollsters tell them what to think, it's refreshing to discover Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, a man who says what he thinks. Johnson has become one of the first high-ranking elected officials to question the war on drugs. "I believe that our war on drugs has been a dismal failure," he told the Taos Chamber of Commerce. "We are putting more and more money into a war that we are absolutely losing." [continues 681 words]
Connie Jackson knows first-hand what havoc street violence can wreak on a family's life. Her 21-year-old son, Jamie, was murdered two years ago. So she formed Mothers Opposed to Murder, and yesterday joined with a citywide contingent of community leaders, children and various law enforcement agencies to announce a march to eradicate drugs, guns and violence in Philadelphia. Violence "tears a family apart," she said at a news conference at Police Headquarters at 8th and Race streets. [continues 416 words]
PHILADELPHIA--A drink before dinner may be good for the cardiovascular system, but more than that could burden an otherwise health-conscious drinker with chronic ailments, including heart and liver disease, researchers warned Tuesday. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showed social drinking can bring about a marked release of bodily chemicals called oxidants, capable of damaging the tissues of major organs, including the heart, liver and brain. "We looked at the direct effects of alcohol itself and demonstrated that alcohol is a pro-oxidant even when blood alcohol levels are in a range that is often attained socially," said Dr. Garret FitzGerald, senior study author and chairman of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. [continues 113 words]
Ridge Administration Deserves Praise For Saying "No" To Privately Owned Prisons. Belatedly, Pennsylvania officials have taken notice of a new industry in the state: privately owned prisons. Cornell Cos., a Texas firm with a contract to house 1,050 inmates from Washington, D.C., has broken ground for a prison in Clearfield County, where a second private prison, to house 700 geriatric inmates, is on the drawing board. This is not a good idea. Some background: Prisons are a growth industry in America. This country has about 1.8 million inmates, the highest rate of incarceration in the Western world. The cost to taxpayers is steep, and a private prison industry has sprung up offering to save dollars. [continues 589 words]
PHILADELPHIA -- Luxury sedans for the top brass are not typically viewed as essential weapons in a police department's war on illegal drugs. Except, apparently, in Philadelphia. Police Commissioner John Timoney, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Sylvester Johnson and Inspector Jeremiah Daley each is cruising the city in a 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis -- rather than the seasoned, city-issue Ford Crown Victorias used by Mayor Ed Rendell, among others. The vehicles are being leased to the Police Department through the federal High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, known as HIDTA, which is footing the $450-a-month leasing fee for each car. [continues 592 words]
While on vacation, I was distressed to learn that ugly rumors had surfaced about myself and the possible use of illegal substances. At first, I was determined to ignore the innuendo, possibly spread by bottom-feeding rivals. But, upon consulting with my advisers, I decided to put these rumors to rest, lest they interfere with my campaign to become America's premier compassionate, conservative columnist. Or is that an oxymoron? Fortunately, I have in my hands the Standard Vice Disclosure Statement (SVDS), created by my colleagues in the media, to handle such questions. It's very handy. When you complete yours be sure to send it to Matt Drudge, who will keep it on file. Just in case. [continues 599 words]
In 1978, 18-year-old Harold T. Frye fled to Florida rather than stand trial on drug-possession charges in Bucks County. He made a new life for himself, married, bought a home, raised three children, and worked two jobs. Through the years, he made morethan a dozen undetected trips back to Bucks County to see relatives, according to his wife, Debbie. But two weeks ago, on July 21, Frye, 39, was stopped by Bristol Township police for speeding on Bath Road. Police discovered the old charges, added a new one of carrying a gun without a license, and locked him in Bucks County Prison. [continues 375 words]
In the Inquirer article "Concert shows pull of alcohol on teens" (Aug. 9), you reported some very disturbing news -- that 65 people ages 15 to 21 attending a daylong rock concert at the Camden Waterfront Entertainment Centre ended up in the emergency rooms of three hospitals. These cases were mostly due to acute alcohol intoxication. As alarming as this news is, we wonder whether most of your readers realize the severity of the alcohol problem among young people today or recognize its seriousness. [continues 189 words]
As alarming as this news is, we wonder whether most of your readers realize the severity of the alcohol problem among young people today or recognize its seriousness. New Jersey's most recent surveys on substance abuse by middle and high school students show that alcohol remains the number-one drug of choice among youth: 30 percent of middle school students and 47 percent of high school students reported having used alcohol in the month before the survey. It's common practice among young people, at increasingly earlier ages, to binge drink -- consume large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Yet there seems to be a much laxer attitude toward alcohol use by youth than to the use of tobacco and illicit drugs. [continues 85 words]
Baby-boomer parent Carol Stewart hasn't been too concerned about which politician used which drugs a quarter-century ago, not when she's been grilled on her own past in a way that hit closer to home. Stewart's day of reckoning arrived last year, in a manner that might rattle many parents who came of age in the 1960s and '70s. The Squirrel Hill mother of three was in the car with daughter, Talia, then 13, who brought up the subject of drugs in a none-too-subtle way. "There were two questions: 'What did you do?' and 'What did Dad do?' " recalled Stewart, 40, who is divorced from Talia's father. [continues 1129 words]
The biggest drug education prevention program in Pennsylvania schools is backed by $4 million in state funds, specially trained police, a national advertising campaign, presidential proclamations and money from the federal Department of Justice. But some experts say it's a waste of time and money. D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is the longest-running, most widely used substance-abuse prevention and safety promotion curriculum in the world. It's used in about 75 percent of all school districts nationwide, and in more than half of Pennsylvania's. [continues 1721 words]
Phoenixville Police Had County Help. Residents Had Been Complaining. PHOENIXVILLE -- Twenty-seven people have been charged with selling controlled substances, and arrest warrants have been issued for five more, marking the end of a nine-month undercover drug investigation, authorities said yesterday. The operation, which began in November 1998, resulted in the largest number of arrests for a single drug sting in the borough's history, said Phoenixville Police Chief John M. Kalavik. "This is a nice town, and these people add nothing to it -- absolutely nothing," Kalavik said. [continues 266 words]
By Michael Sandler INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF To many, a sheriff symbolizes order, a solitary figure slinging a sidearm behind the star of the law. For the last year, the sheriffs of Pennsylvania have found themselves locked in another showdown, but the parties thwarting them from the other end of the proverbial dusty road are not lawbreakers. They are two other enforcers of the law: the state police and the National Guard. The debate is over whether sheriffs, elected county officials who are charged with "maintaining the peace," have the authority to investigate drug crimes. [continues 504 words]
Two Gloucester County corrections officers have been suspended without pay while authorities investigate allegations that they were involved in smuggling illegal drugs into the United States from Mexico, authorities said yesterday. Spencer Scott, 30, of Mantua, was arrested Aug. 8 at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after Customs Service inspectors reported finding vials of steroids hidden under his clothing, according to Judy Turner, a Customs Service spokeswoman in Texas. That same day, Andrew Kullen of Deptford was detained at Philadelphia International Airport after a man with whom he had traveled from Cancun was arrested and charged with having carried suspected illegal drugs into the country, Gloucester County Undersheriff Ronald Bates said. [continues 112 words]
Dermot Garrett Lancaster New Era It's no longer "Just Say No" at Lancaster Catholic High School. Now it's "Just Say No" and "Just Take a Drug Test." In a bold move that may prompt other schools to step up their respective wars against alcohol, marijuana, heroin and other drugs, Lancaster Catholic has adopted a mandatory drug testing policy for all students involved in extracurricular activities. It takes effect this fall. The initiative, approved by Lancaster Catholic's school board and Parent-Teacher Association, sets a precedent for county schools, both public and private. [continues 832 words]
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - The former nurse accused of holding two women hostage for nearly three days in a hospital, then killing one and critically injuring another, had struggled with a heroin problem for more than 15 years, his family said. Dennis Czajkowski, 40, of Collegeville had kicked his drug habit for about seven years in the early 1990s. However, he started up again in early 1998 after becoming addicted to painkillers he was taking for a kidney stone, said his brother, Mark Czajkowski. In addition, he recently had become delusional, paranoid and angry, especially after he was fired on April 16 from his nursing job at Norristown State Hospital, relatives said. [continues 223 words]
Plan Allows Monitoring Of Off Campus Behavior Students in the Colonial School District in Montgomery County caught using drugs or drinking alcohol off campus can now be suspended and ultimately expelled from extracurricular activities. The 5-4 vote approving the "Activities Code of Ethics" came late Thursday night after heated debate among parents and board members, who disagreed on the enforceability, fairness and the right of school officials to monitor students' off-campus behavior. "We're hoping that people will see this in the spirit it's given -- as a deterrent for drug and alcohol abuse," said Board President Stuart Kessler. [continues 208 words]
PHILADELPHIA - Doctors would have greater leeway in treating heroin addicts with methadone under a proposal announced Thursday by the Clinton administration. The proposal requires the nation's 900 methadone clinics to be accredited by an independent agency or state and shifts federal oversight of methadone treatment from the Food and drug Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services. Whereas FDA oversight focused on preventing methadone from getting to the streets, the new guidelines promote "sensible drug treatment for 810,000 Americans who suffer from heroin abuse," said Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. [continues 177 words]
COLLINGSWOOD -- Police yesterday arrested a Collingswood couple who they said smoked marijuana with their 14-year-old son and five of his friends on at least six occasions between January and April of this year. Matthew Davies, 41, of the 700 block of Haddon Avenue, was charged with 12 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. His wife, Beverly, 38, was charged with nine counts of the same offense. While she was being arrested at 10 a.m. yesterday, Beverly Davies suffered a seizure and was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center; she later was released to police. Matthew Davies, a construction worker, surrendered to police yesterday afternoon after returning from work. [continues 136 words]
I know about "jury nullification" because of a field trip to Philadelphia that my parents took our family on in July 1976. I asked my mother, "Who's that statue on top of City Hall anyway?" She said William Penn. But when I asked who he was, she told me to look him up. Earlier that year, my parents had bought us the Encyclopaedia Britannica, so I read about Penn and the trial of his life, which eventually led to the First Amendment. It was a very appropriate project; America's Bicentennial celebration was going full-blast. [continues 661 words]
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Two Amish men received a year in prison Wednesday for buying cocaine from bikers and selling it among youth groups in their strict religious community. Abner Stoltzfus, 25, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 24, Lancaster County men who are not related, are members of the Old Order Amish, the most conservative Anabaptist sect. They eschew automobiles, electricity, computers, fancy clothes and most other modern conveniences, and use horse-driven buggies for transportation. "These defendants ... were responsible for bringing disrepute to themselves, their families and their community," U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer said. [continues 242 words]
PHILADELPHIA - A U.S. District judge sentenced two Amish men Wednesday to a year in prison for conspiring with a motorcycle gang to sell drugs at the youth hoedowns of the insular Old Order Amish religious sect. About 100 Amish men and women crowded into a Philadelphia courtroom to hear U.S. District Judge Clarence Newcomer impose a penalty that he said he hoped would send a message about crime to other Amish young people. It was the first federal narcotics case to involve Pennsylvania's Lancaster Amish community. [continues 348 words]
Seven conspirators in a cocaine and methamphetamine ring that featured the odd coupling of the Pagans motorcycle club and Lancaster County's Amish community were sentenced yesterday. U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer meted out sentences that ranged from six months of home confinement to seven years in prison, with most of those involved in the drug plot getting jail terms of four to five years. Still to be sentenced are the two Amish men who sold cocaine to other Amish youths at Lancaster County hoedowns. Abner Stoltzfus, 25, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 24, both of Gap, Pa., and unrelated, are scheduled for sentencing today. [continues 507 words]
At Issue Are "Sting" Techniques. Aid For Drug Programs Could Be Lost. Officials in Delaware and Schuylkill Counties are up in arms over federal regulations that could cost Pennsylvania $26 million in antidrug funding if it misses an August deadline to cut down on cigarette sales to minors. Two issues gall the officials, they say. First, their human services departments, which provide drug treatment and prevention programs, could be penalized for what they consider a law-enforcement-agency failure. Second, the state Department of Health has asked counties to use teenagers to try to buy cigarettes in "sting" operations, an enforcement tool that the two counties are refusing to use. [continues 475 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
