Local News
UPDATE: Court reinstates evidence in drug case
WEST MIDDLESEX — By 2-1, a panel of Superior Court has reversed a Mercer County judge’s ruling to suppress evidence in a drug case.
The decision reinstates evidence against Matthew C. Skarica, 24, of 139 Jackson Road, West Middlesex, who was charged with possession of 13 ounces of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson said Southwest Mercer County Regional police held Skarica too long before taking him before a district judge on a traffic warrant.
Southwest said they got a tip Nov. 6, 2007, that Skarica was involved in drug activity and, knowing the warrant was outstanding for his arrest, looked for him and arrested him.
Police questioned Skarica and he told them he stored marijuana at 2019 Landay Lane, Farrell. After obtaining a search warrant, police said they found marijuana under a mattress in a bedroom and in a jeans pocket. Burnt pot was found in an ashtray in another bedroom, and a lockbox found in an attic contained a scale, sandwich bags and marijuana, police said.
Skarica was arrested at 2:47 p.m., but was not released until after 6 p.m., when a constable told him to report the next morning to the office of District Judge Ronald E. Antos, Farrell.
In a suppression motion, Assistant Mercer County Public Defender Charles F. Gilchrest said police are required promptly to take a person arrested on a warrant before the judge who issued the warrant.
At issue is a rule of criminal procedure that states that, when someone is arrested on a warrant between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., police are to take that person before the judge who issued the warrant “without unnecessary delay.”
Dobson agreed with Gilchrest, but the Mercer County District Attorney’s Office appealed arguing that a three-hour delay was not unnecessary.
“The grant of a motion to suppress evidence is the exception and not the rule when it comes to the remedy employed for violation of a procedural rule by police,” said Superior Court Senior Judge Zoran Popovich, writing for himself and Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen.
Popovich cited a state Supreme Court case in which the court ruled suppression was not warranted when the rule is violated by police.
Southwest committed a “mere technical violation,” Popovich said in a precedential opinion filed Wednesday.
Even if Southwest had complied with the rule, Skarica still might have been detained past the time when he could pay the fine and costs or plead not guilty to the warrant charge, Popovich said.
“And, unlike the trial court, we are of the view that it is not uncharacteristic for a person arrested because of an outstanding warrant to be detained by police and questioned, which is what occurred” in the Skarica case, Popovich said.
Superior Court President Judge Kate Ford Elliott dissented, but did not publish an opinion.
- Local News
-
-
Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
-
Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
-
Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
-
Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
-
Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
-
City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
-
Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
-
Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
-
City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
