Monthly Archives: April 2014

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Two Pittsburgh Area Women Arrested For Stealing Puppy From Animal Shelter

Surveillance video at the Animal Rescue League in Homewood captured images of two 25-year-old women stealing a puppy earlier this week. The women, one from Homestead and the other from West Mifflin, were arrested and charged with retail theft after the two-month-old pit bull Labrador mixed puppy was found at the Homestead woman’s house. The puppy was reportedly unharmed and the executive director of the Animal Rescue League stated that it was being returned to the shelter by police. The West Homestead police officer who found the puppy reported that the two women entered the shelter on Tuesday afternoon around 3:30pm and walked out with the puppy under one of their coats about 20 minutes later.

After entering the shelter with a young child and writing their names on a ledger at the main kennel area – which were later deemed illegible – they informed employees that they wanted to adopt a dog. They expressed interest in the puppy that they later stole, and after employees at the shelter informed the women that the puppy would cost $300, one of the women, according to the surveillance video, distracted employees while the other put the canine under her coat. A routine inventory check was done at the end of the night and it was then that the puppy was found to be missing. It is believed that the women were looking to sell the dog.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Ten People Admit To Dealing Heroin in Clarksburg and Morgantown

According to U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II, ten people have admitted to dealing heroin in Clarksburg and Morgantown. Three people – one male and two females – ranging in age from 22 to 33 will appear before Magistrate Judge John S. Kaull and have pled guilty to distributing heroin within 1,000 feet of Pierpont Community and Technical College. Another female co-defendant pled not guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin. The defendants are from Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, Hepzibah, and Walkersville. The male defendant and one of the female defendants are in custody while another is free on bond. They all face sentences ranging from 20 to 40 years in prison.

In Morgantown, two male defendants ages 26 and 29, both residents of Morgantown, pled guilty to charges of distribution of heroin. Four more defendants – one female and three males – ranging in age from 26 to 32 pled guilty to distribution of heroin within 1,000 feet of West Virginia University and the Tot Lot playground at Marjorie Gardens. Their sentences are also expected to range between 20 and 40 years. The tenth defendant, a 29-year-old male from Morgantown, pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute as well as to distribute oxycodone. The suspect faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and is currently free on bond.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Pittsburgh Man Held in Fatal Hit and Run

A Pennsylvania man is facing several charges, including driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle, accident involving death or injury while not licensed, and driving with an invalid license, after a hit-and-run accident early this week left a pedestrian dead.

The accused, a 25 year old man of Beechview, is alleged to have hit and killed a pedestrian in Brookline early Sunday morning, and then left the scene of the accident.  According to police, the man was driving a blue Ford Explorer in the 2300 block of Pioneer Avenue at about 2:20 a.m. when he struck the victim, who is also 25 years old. The victim was transported to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where he was pronounced dead just before 3:00 a.m.

Police used crime scene evidence to help identify the make and model of the vehicle involved in the accident. After putting out an alert for a blue Ford SUV or pickup with a broken bug shield, police were able to locate the vehicle parked at a home on the 900 block of Tropical Ave. Police were then able to locate the driver of the car and its three passengers inside the home where the car was found. After conducting interviews, law enforcement arrested the alleged driver of the vehicle and took him to Allegheny County jail for processing.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Pittsburgh’s Child Predator Unit Makes Two Arrests For Child Porn In One Week

Two Pittsburgh area men were arrested last week on charges relating to the possession of child pornography. The cases, however, are unrelated to one another except that the came as a result of the same investigation. The men allegedly are not acquainted. The attorney general’s office reported that one of the suspects, a 36 year old man from New Kensington, admitted that he was recording a teenage girl in her bedroom by using a webcam device. The other suspect is a 41-year-old from man South Park. Both of them are being held until their respective preliminary hearings, which will both take place next week.

The Child Predator Unit of the attorney general’s office began investigating the 36-year-old man last month when a larger investigation of consumers of child porn was already underway. Agents were investigating users who were accessing a specific internet file-sharing network exclusively for such material. The agents traced his IP address to a home on North Bluff Drive where the man lives with his wife and a 17-year-old female.  There they found over 100 child porn videos that had been downloaded to his hard drive, some of which featuring children as young as 2.

The 41-year-old was arrested as part of the same larger investigation but the specific nature and quantity of the content found on his computer was not revealed.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Pittsburgh Police Arrest Man For Running Naked Across Rachel Carson Bridge

An as-yet unidentified man was arrested this week when witnesses saw him running naked across a downtown Pittsburgh bridge. Pittsburgh Police were called to the scene after reports began coming into dispatchers about a man who had begun taking off his clothes on the Rachel Carson bridge and then tossing them over the side into the Allegheny River. The man began running when police arrived at the bridge, which forced a foot pursuit. According to the report, once the man was apprehended he resisted arrest and had to be tased in order to be subdued and taken into custody.

The man’s identity was not revealed. It is unknown whether police do not know his identity or if it is just being withheld. The man’s motive for stripping naked is also unknown. Video of the incident was taken by a witness and posted on the internet. It has since gone viral and the witness herself, a certified etiquette trainer, claims that she saw police providing the man with a trash bag in order to cover himself. He apparently put the trash bag on briefly, but according to the witness he didn’t leave it on for long. After it was given to him, she saw that he was naked again as police were trying to put him in handcuffs.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Westmoreland County Man Arraigned for Killing Mom’s Boyfriend

A Westmoreland County man, who has been accused of killing his mother’s boyfriend, was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Joseph Dalfonso on Thursday.

According to police, the 40 year old suspect shot his mother’s boyfriend – age 54- three times outside a house on Donner Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Police say that an argument about drugs and entering rehab escalated and led to the shooting, though the exact details of the alleged argument are not clear.

After the shooting, the mother of the accused came downstairs to find her boyfriend badly wounded in the chest and head.  The victim was transported to the Monongahela Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:28 a.m.

Officers report that when they arrived on the scene the mother of the accused indicated that her son had shot her boyfriend. After obtaining a search warrant, police searched the home and found a .22 caliber pistol, which is believed to have been the murder weapon.

The accused shooter is being held without bond at the Westmoreland County Prison in Hempfield Township. He is set to appear at a preliminary hearing before Judge Dalfonso on February 21st.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Covert Drug Task Force Securing Indictments in West Virginia

At least fifteen federal drug indictments have been secured since the beginning of the year thanks to an unassuming but very effective task force in rural West Virginia. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld introduced the task force in late January after it had already been working for several weeks to shut down known drug activity in Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker counties. Ihlenfeld stated that more arrests are expected over the next several days and weeks, and that there are a number of individuals who have already been named in drug indictments from last week that are as yet sealed.

According to Ihlenfeld, a “memorandum of understanding” was executed in late 2013 regarding the task force, but the board decided to wait until the task force had begun making indictments before it informed the public about its existence and activities. The reason for the delay is that several individuals and groups were already under investigation, and task force officials didn’t want to jeopardize those cases by going public too early.

One of the most important cases involved a 67-count indictment in which three individuals were charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, and details how those individuals allegedly shopped for the ingredients to concoct their drugs. Six more individuals have also been identified in separate cases and charged with distribution of hydrocodone, cocaine, crack, and oxycodone, among other drugs. Ihlenfeld has declared that the task force is just getting started in its efforts to rid counties in rural West Virginia of dangerous and illegal street drugs.

The task force includes members of several law enforcement agencies including county sheriffs and prosecutors in the three aforementioned counties, the West Virginia State Police, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Members of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are also assisting in the task force efforts on a case-by-case basis.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.

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Leniency Sought For Former City Of Pittsburgh Employee Charged With Bid Rigging

Lawyers for a former City of Pittsburgh employee who is accused of rigging bids for city contracts have stated that they believe the accused will receive probation. The bid-rigging that was conducted by the employee was found as part of an investigation by federal authorities into the city’s operations. The defendant’s lawyers claim that the city of Pittsburgh was not “materially” harmed by the bid-rigging efforts because in the end, the city selected the lowest bidder which it always does in these situations. And the work for which it was contracted was performed according to that contract.

The defendant pleaded guilty in December of 2012 to helping to defraud the United States government out of grant money by making the claim that one of the contracting companies was a female-owned business, when it in fact was not. The claim led to a contract for the business, which saw the city pay out $327,000 for the installation of laptops into Pittsburgh police cars. The defendant herself was paid $6,000 for her efforts in helping to win the contract, by rigging the bid with the false claim about the owners of the company.

The owner of the company has pled guilty to charges of conspiracy, bribery, and mail fraud, and was sentenced last month to three years of probation. Other investigations stemming from the initial federal probe into the rigged bidding led to the discovery of indiscretions within police bureau operations, as well as the resignation of the former Pittsburgh Chief of Police.

The defendant also was charged with tapping into secret police accounts for personal use, and failure to file income tax returns, charges to which she has pled guilty.

Attorney Frank Walker of Frank Walker Law is a National Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer and Personal Injury Attorney with offices in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Morgantown West Virginia.

If you or someone you love are facing criminal charges or seriously injured in an accident, contact Attorney Frank Walker immediately at 412-315-7441, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for aggressive and experienced Criminal Defense or Representation in a Civil Case.