WILKES-BARRE — City police officer Dan Duffy, who was reinstated Oct. 16 after being fired just over a year ago, will receive back pay and pension service credit — less earnings from other interim employment, according to an agreement between the city and police union.

Duffy, vice president of the Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association, was fired Oct. 18, 2017, after sending what city officials considered a threatening email to Mayor Tony George and city Administrator Ted Wampole.

According to a memorandum of understanding between the city and police union dated Oct. 15, the city will purge any reference to disciplinary charges related to the email and the termination from Duffy’s personnel record. In return, the union agreed to withdraw four pending unfair labor practice complaints along with the grievance filed over Duffy’s termination.

The memorandum also notes that terms of the settlement do not eliminate or terminate a federal lawsuit that Duffy and Myers filed against the city in January.

Duffy served as Scranton police chief until July 2012, when he resigned to take a job as director of the Act 120 police academy program at Lackawanna College. He was hired by Wilkes-Barre police in February 2014 and continued to work for the academy.

Duffy had been working part time at some local police departments after he was terminated from Wilkes-Barre.

— STEVE MOCARSKY

Oct. 20, 1968

Murder at the Globe

David Evans, a resident of the Scranton YMCA, was arrested for the murder of Mabel Louise McLaughlin of Plymouth, Indiana, the afternoon of Oct. 19.

According to police, Evans stabbed McLaughlin multiple times in the basement of the Globe store. They believe the attack occurred after McLaughlin broke a date with Evans. They both worked at the department store.

Evans ran from the store after the attack but was tackled by fellow store employee Kevin McMahon at Wyoming Avenue and Spruce Street.

Scranton police took Evans into custody. He was booked on an open charge of murder.

McLaughlin had recently moved to the Scranton area from Indiana to attend Marywood College in the spring. She was living with relatives on Quincy Avenue.

Reaction to big wedding

People on the streets of downtown Scranton were asked how they felt about the marriage of Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

“I think it’s just awful,” Rose Borgia of Scranton said. “She’s too young and pretty. She doesn’t need the money, that’s for sure.”

“Lots of luck,” said Alrene Powell of Jermyn. “It might be very good for her.”

Margaret Snyder of Peckville said she was “surprised at the man she chose.”

Local restaurateur Alex Silas had a different view: “It is a wonderful thing. They should be left alone to live their lives. They were longtime friends even when the president was alive.”

They were married on the Island of Scorpios in Greece.

BRIAN FULTON, library manager, oversees The Times-Tribune’s expansive digital and paper archives and is an authority on local history. Contact Brian at bfulton@timesshamrock.com or 570-348-9140.

Match 6 lottery number wrong

An incorrect Pennsylvania Match 6 lottery number

published on Page A2 of

Friday’s edition. The correct numbers from Thursday’s drawing are 5-7-15-16-24-30.

To report an error, please call the Metro Desk at

570-348-9121.

Ernest Lemoncelli, a Republican candidate for the 112th State House District, will host a meet-the-candidate wine and cheese fundraiser at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Case Quattro Winery, 1542 Main St., Blakely. Tickets are $10 a person and available at the door.

SCRANTON — The city hopes to receive a $2.5 million state grant for new sidewalks in South Side along parts of Cedar Avenue that see heavy pedestrian use.

City council introduced a resolution from Mayor Bill Courtright’s administration this week to authorize the city to apply for a “multimodal transportation” grant to repair and replace sidewalks on Cedar Avenue, from Bogart Court to Birch Street.

The project area also would include a 250-foot portion of Birch Street in the area of its two intersections with Cedar Avenue, where Cedar Avenue zigzags between its 700 and 800 blocks.

“The existing sidewalks along Cedar Avenue are either incomplete, in a state of disrepair, are poorly lit and do not meet current accessibility standards in a mixed residential and business area with heavy pedestrian traffic,” the application says.

In council discussion about the grant, city resident Marie Schumacher said the application is unclear or confusing in several respects, including about the timing of the grant submission, the city requesting a waiver of matching funds, and hiring of three additional people. The legislation before council also is incomplete because it references attachments in the application that are not included in the paperwork accompanying the resolution before council.

“I don’t understand this at all,” Schumacher told council of the legislation and application. “It’s an incomplete package. You cannot totally evaluate what they’re trying to do.”

She also questioned whether the sidewalk project is necessary and whether multimodal grant funds could be better spent on replacing the city’s many old, faded and missing street signs.

Saying Schumacher raised good points, Councilman Bill Gaughan asked that council request the administration to provide a better explanation and more information about the matter before council votes on adoption of the resolution Monday.

Councilman Wayne Evans agreed, noting the application references two phases of a Cedar Avenue streetscape project.

“This is probably a continuation of a project started and maybe the plan all along was to do this,” Evans said. “It would be nice to have a further explanation.”

The application says the proposed project would complete Phase 1 of the Cedar Avenue streetscape from Bogart Court to Hickory Street, and include a Phase 2 of extending improvements from Hickory Street to Birch Street, as well as to a 250-foot portion of Birch Street at its two intersections with Cedar Avenue.

Later in the week in a phone interview, grant project manager Tom Reilly of Reilly Associates engineering firm of Pittston said the grant process evolved. An application for a multimodal grant through PennDOT for Phase 1, from Bogart Court to Hickory Street, had been submitted earlier in the year. That was pending when another multimodal grant round opened through a different state agency, the Commonwealth Financing Authority, an independent agency of the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The thinking was to apply under this additional round for Phase 2, but include the Phase 1 area as well, in case the initial grant did not come through, Reilly said. It turned out that the initial grant was not approved, “but now we’re in the running” for the grant in the other round, Reilly said.

The sidewalks along Cedar Avenue represent a mishmash of intermittent old and newer sections, as well as different materials of concrete, asphalt and gravel. Some older sections are cracked and crumbled. Under a paving project last year, PennDOT upgraded sidewalk corners with disabled accessible curbcuts. Newer sidewalk sections and curbcuts would remain in place, and would not be torn up and redone, under any new project, Reilly said.

The grant also reflects a larger vision of creating an Iron District linking the downtown to South Side along Cedar Avenue, from Lackawanna Avenue to Birch Street, said Reilly and a key proponent of an iron-district corridor, Michele Dempsey of DxDempsey Architecture in Scranton. An iron district would include the historic Scranton Iron Furnaces at 159 Cedar Ave., which helped forge the Industrial Revolution.

“The idea is to really create kind of an artistic and cultural link between the downtown and that Cedar Avenue corridor, and make it a strong corridor into South Side,” Dempsey said in a phone interview. “Right now, it’s not very walkable. This (grant) would be the first step of implementing this (iron district) plan, starting with streetscapes.”

Reilly noted that his firm and Dempsey’s are donating their services toward the sidewalk-grant project.

After the council discussion last Monday, council voted 5-0

— with Gaughan, Evans, Tim Perry, Kyle Donahue and council President Pat Rogan all in favor — to introduce the grant-application resolution.

The resolution would come up for a vote on adoption at council’s 6 p.m. Monday meeting at City Hall.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

■ Charles Murphy and Constance Murphy to Thomas H. Stitzer and Cathy A. Stitzer, property in Meshoppen Twp. for $35,000.

■ Barry W. Griggs and Carla M. Griggs, to Brian Eso and Rosanna Eso, property in Tunkhannock Twp. for $77,000.

■ Angela Sorbelli and Joel Stong to Dusam LLC, property in Eaton Twp. for $50,000.

■ Maureen Veety to Alan Latwinski, property in Tunkhannock Twp. for $187,000.

■ Robert W. Swiontek and Carol Swiontek, to Lee Kozokas, property in Braintrim Twp. for $8,500.

■ John Patrick Warner to James D. Hill, property in Clinton Twp. for $143,000.

■ Alice M. Gable, executrix, Jonathan Gable, executor, Carl A. Gable, deceased, to Jennifer L. Geary, property in Tunkhannock Twp., for $169,950.

■ Joseph J. Terrana, trustee, Mantione Trust, to Sandra Louvisa Walker, property in Meshoppen Twp. for $75,000.

■ Marjorie Jordan and Timothy R. Jordan, power of attorney, to Mark Ridge and Tonya Ridge, property in Mehoopany Twp. for $62,500.

■ Robert E. Kern Jr., Michael E. Kern and Nicole Laurent Kern, to Winola Lakes LLC, property in Overfield Twp., for $1,200,000.

MARRIAGE LICENSES

■ Christian A. Hofmeister and Elizabeth A. Svetovich, both of Factoryville.

■ Joseph Pasquale Genito and Rylee Drian Carnright, both of Tunkhannock.

■ Justin W. Sickler, Tunkhannock, and Holley M. Hilbert, Springville.

■ Jacob Brown and Chantel Summer Zionkowski, both of Tunkhannock.

ESTATES FILED

■ Helen M. Rail, late of Meshoppen, letters testamentary to Jane Ellen Stephens, 31 Lakeview Drive, South Abington Twp.

■ Jerome Fuhr, late of Tunkhannock, letters testamentary to Marlene Fuhr, c/o Douglas P. Thomas, Scranton.

WYOMING COUNTY COURT NOTES appear weekly in The Times-Tribune.

DICKSON CITY

The owner of the Dough Life, Edible Cookie Dough store at the Oakdale Mall near Binghamton, N.Y., plans to open a store at the Viewmont Mall.

Ali Burak Saracoglu, a Binghamton University alumni, came to Binghamton as a student but stayed and made it his home because of the hospitality he found there, he said in an announcement.

Saracoglu opened the cookie dough store in the mall near Binghamton on June 1, and saw an opportunity to branch out in the Scranton area.

He plans to open the new store at the Viewmont Mall on Friday or Nov. 2.

— JIM LOCKWOOD

MARRIAGE LICENSE

Dhavankumar Narendrabhai Patel, Kalamazoo, Mich., and Pinkal Shirish Patel, Scranton.

Luke Gerard Brown and Margaret S. McAndrew, both of Simpson.

Oumar Coulibaly and Fatoumata Fatima Soumare, both of Scott Twp.

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

Thomas J. Ruddy, also known as Thomas J. Ruddy Jr., and Laurie Ruddy, Carbondale, to R&T Real Estate Holdings LLC, Carbondale; two parcels in Carbondale for $120,000.

Gail A. Learn, executrix of the estate of Mary Learn, Peckville, to Edward Zelinka, Falls Twp.; a property in Ransom Twp. for $350,000.

Stephen Chisdak, Moosic, to Flor and Luz Gonzalez, Scranton; a property at 3718 Wylam Ave., Moosic, for $124,900.

Jeffrey Robert and Christina L. Latham, Clarks Summit, to Stephanie Fuentes and Marco Antonio Franco, Scranton; a property at 222 Electric St., Clarks Summit, for $166,000.

Julia and David Patrick Abel, Anthony and James P. Fortese and Eileen Fortese, administratix of the estate of Salvatore Fortese, Dunmore, to Jason J. Scarantino, Dunmore; a property at 143 E. Elm St., Dunmore, for $141,000.

Christopher John Baron, executor of the estate of Margaret Ruth Baron, Scranton, to Dan Lin, Scranton; a property at 1532 Thackery St., Scranton, for $72,000.

Leo J. and Patricia Kennedy, Scranton, and Maureen Kennedy May, Vestal, N.Y., to David Lynn Scasta, Milford; a property at 531 Gibbons St., Scranton, for $154,600.

Jeffrey and Elizabeth O’Malley, Scranton, to George and Mary Aileen Tlamsa, Bayside, N.Y.; a property at 24 Coyne Ave., Scranton, for $165,000.

Barbara A. Macleod, Scranton, to Wilson D. Lara, Scranton; two parcels in Scranton for $58,300.

Joyce Christine Frommert to Rahat N. Jamal and Mussarat R. Ahmed; a property at 1518 Olive St., Scranton, for $39,000.

Bank of New York Mellon, formerly known as the Bank of New York, Coral Gables, Fla., to Edwin Martinez Chaparro, Scranton; a property at 2217 Rockwell Ave., Scranton, for $28,500.

Michael D. and Jeanne Lopez, Archbald, to Heather Kubic Skapyak, Archbald; a property at 101 Meadow Lane, Archbald, for $310,000.

Thomas J. and Mary Elizabeth Butler, Dunmore, to Frank J. Summa, Dunmore; a property at 1509-1511 Quincy Ave., Dunmore, for $110,000.

Kelly A. Barbolish, also known as Kelly Ann Barbolish, executrix of the estate of Helem M. Glinsky, also known as Helen Marie Glinsky, also known as Helen Glinsky, Throop, to 515 George LLC, Scranton; a property at 515-517 George St., Throop, for $115,000.

Anthony W. and Lauren Dibileo, Scranton, to Dalberto and Amado Romero, Lodi Twp., N.J.; a property at 923-925 S. Main Ave., Scranton, for $43,000.

Ciclico Properties LLC to Anna E. Stewart, Scranton; a property at 943 Monroe Ave., Scranton, for $156,000.

Esad and Jasminka Kajtezovic, Scranton, to Kyle Dale, Scranton; a property at 613 Fig St., Scranton, for $92,000.

Eugene Panaro, Throop, to Keith, Cathy and Stephanie Jones, Throop; a property at 638 Sanderson St., Throop, for $125,000.

Trustees of the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church of Peckville, Blakely, to Mohammad A. Mannaf and Sazia Hossain, Archbald; a property at 340 Hickory St., Blakely, for $75,000.

John S. Marsili and Linda M. Kushner, trustees of the John Anthony Marsili irrevocable family trust, to Bryan Thomas Ancherani; a property at 141 Hill St., Jessup, for $90,000.

Joseph L. and Deborah A. Piwowarski, Blakely, to Jonathan J. and Kaila M. Cruz, Hawley; a property at 312 Whitmore Ave., Mayfield, for $156,701.

James A. and Dana M. Chapman, Archbald, to Jennifer Ashley Blaum, Jessup; a property at 909 Charles St., Archbald, for $118,450.

Gerald J. Swift, South Abington Twp., to Anthony J. Nese Jr., Scranton; two parcels in Scranton for $119,500.

DIVORCES SOUGHT

Lee Gruen, Scranton, v. Beverly Gruen, Newtown; married Oct. 18, 1989, in Scranton; Brian J. Cali, attorney.

Adam Mark Reese, Roaring Brook Twp., v. Nicole Christine Reese, Roaring Brook Twp.; married Oct. 14, 2017, in Lackawanna County; James W. Reid, attorney.

LAWSUIT

Jeffrey and Maria Silverblatt, 1286 Drydock St., Brunswick, Md., v. Roberta A. Woller, 215 Layton Road, South Abington Twp., and Susan O. Maldonado, same address, seeking an amount upon the foregoing cause of action in excess of $50,000 along with interest and costs, on three counts, for injuries suffered by the plaintiff on or about Nov. 2, 2016, at or around 1:45 p.m., when the defendants’ dog ran out onto Layton Road, running across the plaintiff’s path, causing the plaintiff to hit the dog and subsequently crash his motorcycle; Gregory J. Pascale, attorney.

ESTATES FILED

Ronald J. Allegrucci, also known as Ronald J. Allegrucci Jr., 1648 Layton Road, Scott Twp., letters testamentary to Magee C. Allegrucci, 6 Fairmont Circle, Clarks Summit.

Fleurette Marie Obaroski, 1124 Church St., Moscow, letters testamentary to Kathy Obaroski, same address.

Arthur McConnell, also known as Arthur F. McConnell Sr., 220 Linden St., Apt. 207, Scranton, letters testamentary to Linda Jensen, same address.

Thomas McCormack, 100 Linwood Ave., Scranton, letters of administration to Thomas McCormack Jr., 845 N. Main St., Scranton.

ONLINE: thetimes-tribune.com/courts

SCRANTON

A new Taco Bell will open at the former Sonic Drive-In fast food restaurant on West Olive Street, across from Scranton High School.

Sonic opened in August 2011 and closed in early September.

The parent company of Taco Bell, Muy Properties NE Ltd., of San Antonio, Texas, bought the Sonic property Sept. 6.

Taco Bell District Manager Abdull Tulunay said the company will renovate the former Sonic and hopes to have a Taco Bell open there in late November or early December. Taco Bell also has restaurants in Dickson City, Clarks Summit and Pittston Twp.

— JIM LOCKWOOD

State Sen. John Blake misspoke Friday when he said Gov. Tom Wolf wants to consolidate the state’s two largest pension funds if he wins a second term.

Blake, D-22, Archbald, told the editorial board of The Times-Tribune that Wolf hopes to merge the State Employees’ Retirement System and the Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Running for a third term against Republican Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo in the Nov. 6 general election, Blake said he would support the merger, arguing the move would eliminate duplicate investment fees and create a “larger fund that has better investment leverage.”

When contacted by the newspaper, Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said the governor proposed merging only the investment offices of the two pension funds to cut investment fee costs. Wolf has not proposed merging the two pension systems or their boards, Abbott said.

Blake spokesman Jeff Cavanaugh clarified the senator’s comments Friday afternoon. He was referring to “consolidating the investment management operations of both systems into a single office,” not the systems themselves, Cavanaugh said.

As of the end of last year, SERS had nearly 240,000 members and maintained total fund assets of $29.1 billion. PSERS serves more than 600,000 public school employees and maintains assets worth approximately $53.5 billion as of June 30, 2017.

“Under a combined investment office, the ultimate decisions would still be made by the respective boards,” Abbott wrote in an email. The administration is awaiting the recommendations of a commission established last year under the broader pension reforms of Act 5 “on how to further cut the cost of investment fees,” he wrote.

Blake also addressed the issue of school property tax elimination, calling Senate Bill 76 — a legislative proposal to abolish school property taxes and fund education by hiking the personal income and state sales taxes — “terrible tax policy.”

Hiking the personal income tax by 61 percent, as SB 76 entails, would put “half” of the state’s small businesses that pay the personal income tax rate out of business, Blake argued. The proposal also would absolve large corporations, from pharmaceutical companies to casinos and banks, of $3 billion in property tax payments annually and shift that burden onto the backs of regular citizens, he said.

“We have to find another revenue stream or look to slight adjustments in the sales-tax base to raise additional revenue to focus it on public education (and) to take the weight off fixed income households that can’t afford the rising cost,” Blake said. “There’s a way to do that without giving the corporate community a $3 billion tax break.”

The 22nd District includes all of Lackawanna County, as well as Pittston Twp. and Avoca, Dupont and Duryea boroughs in Luzerne County, and Barrett, Coolbaugh and Price townships in Monroe County. State legislators earn $87,180.27 annually.

Contact the writer: jhorvath@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9141; @jhorvathTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — John Tanis, caught with a dog, avoided jail Friday.

The 70-year-old Moosic resident, most recently convicted of abusing five dogs but who has a criminal history dating back four decades, must spend another year on probation for possessing a dog, which is a parole violation, a judge ruled Friday.

Tanis could have potentially gone to jail Friday to serve the remainder of his sentence but Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle opted for supervision, noting that Tanis has spent 13 months under supervision without any violation until recent months.

Humane officers seized Tanis’ latest dog Monday. At Friday’s hearing, Tanis did not dispute he had the dog. His attorney, First Assistant Public Defender Joseph Kalinowski, said that Tanis thought he was being aboveboard, even going as far as to posting the dog license on his porch.

Assistant District Attorney Mike McGrath said that Tanis’ long history with authorities raises doubts on the efficacy of his probation and that a stint in jail is appropriate.

“It’s clear that probation is not solving the problem,” McGrath said. “If that were the case, we wouldn’t be here.”

Tanis said that he got the dog, a Doberman mix named Dobey, as protection after he was assaulted at his home in April. Moyle said that getting the dog without any kind of approval amounted to putting the cart before the horse. Tanis acknowledged that he did not follow procedure as he should have.

“Yes, it’s a violation, judge, but not every violation needs to be punished with jail,” Kalinowski said.

Tanis was convicted in December 2014 of five counts of animal cruelty and several summary citations; he was sentenced to one to two years in prison followed by three years of special probation under state supervision. Tanis left prison in April 2016.

State agents made regular contact with him without any violation from then until August, when a dog was discovered on his property. Earlier this month, Tanis asserted the dog was no longer there. Officials found it again Monday.

Dobey was placed into the custody of Lackawanna County Humane Officer Lisa Devlin, who is trying to seek placement in an adoptive home, District Attorney Mark Powell said.

Tanis said he sought Dobey after police in April charged his then roommate Joseph Bolin, 49, with simple assault for throwing a full can of beer at his head from across the kitchen. The two had been arguing over Bolin slamming the front door of the house, according to a criminal complaint.

That case is still pending in county court.

During the morning’s sentencing hearing, Moyle mulled if she could place Tanis back in his home at 816 Main St., a property perhaps as notorious as its resident. She had concerns that the Tanis’ home might be unfit for habitation.

In August 2015, borough council voted unanimously to condemn the property. During Friday’s hearing, the district attorney’s office told the judge Tanis is working with the borough to bring the house up to code.

“The house is perfectly habitable or parole wouldn’t let me live there since 2016,” Tanis said. “I think my house is great.”

Tanis, who has a monthly income of $900, also avoided serving any part of his new supervision under house arrest. Kalinowski said that cost could run up to $15 a day.

Moyle kept in place a key condition of Tanis’ supervision. Under no circumstances can he have a dog.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9144; @jkohutTT on Twitter.

A woman accused of crashing an ambulance she stole after a chase through Olyphant and Dickson City on Thursday night faces numerous felony counts filed by two police departments.

Stephanie Schwambach, 44, 125 Church St., Apt. A, Shillington, went to Geisinger Community Medical Center for treatment and a mental health evaluation after she crashed a Pennsylvania Ambulance vehicle into a tree behind homes at Amhurst and Templeton drives in Dickson City.

Olyphant police charged her with aggravated assault, fleeing, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, running a red light and stop signs, causing an accident, criminal mischief and receiving stolen property. Those charges cover the tense pursuit detailed in a criminal complaint filed by borough Patrolmen Dennis Sekelsky Jr., James DeVoe and Kevin Murphy.

Scranton Patrolman Greg Garvey charged theft in a separate complaint because police accused Schwambach of stealing Penn-31 from where it had been parked at GCMC.

A representative who answered the phone at Pennsylvania Ambulance said the company had no comment.

According to Olyphant’s complaint, authorities tracked the stolen ambulance using the vehicle’s GPS system.

Police spotted the vehicle headed north on South Valley Avenue, and they turned on their lights and sirens. Schwambach did not stop. She collided with the rear bumper of another car as police tried to box her in. She also struck an Olyphant police cruiser during the chase.

The chase continued along Lackawanna Avenue through Olyphant and into Dickson City, where she crashed and demolished the ambulance in the Westwood Manor development.

Schwambach was injured and was taken to the hospital for treatment. No other injuries were reported.

Schwambach is in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail — $50,000 for Olyphant’s complaint and $25,000 for Scranton’s.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 29.

Contact the writer:

jkohut@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9144; @jkohutTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — A Dunmore woman faces a potentially long prison sentence after admitting in Lackawanna County Court she supplied the drugs that caused a Midvalley man’s fatal overdose in December.

Noelle Svetlana Orazi, 22, 1508 Madison Ave., pleaded guilty to a felony count of drug delivery resulting in death during a brief appearance Friday before Judge Andy Jarbola.

Archbald police arrested Orazi in March and charged her in the death of A.J. Veno, 22, who fatally overdosed Dec. 15 at his borough home.

Jarbola delayed sentencing for Orazi, who remains jailed on $200,000 bail, pending the completion of a presentencing investigation.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and a $25,000 fine, although the average sentence handed down to defendants statewide since 2014 is 6½ to 15 years.

Officers who investigated Veno’s death discovered two cellophane bags containing white residue in the bedroom where he overdosed. An autopsy found his death resulted from the combined effects of heroin laced with synthetic fentanyl, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant.

In an interview with investigators in late December, Orazi said she discussed getting drugs for Veno for $100 and later gave him heroin and cocaine after meeting with her supplier at a Wilkes-Barre barbershop Dec. 14, according to her arrest affidavit.

Under questioning by Jarbola, Orazi said she understood the implications of pleading guilty, including the rights she was surrendering and the possible sentence.

Deputy District Attorney Drew Krowiak told the judge the commonwealth will not prosecute Orazi on several related charges in exchange for her plea. In addition, prosecutors will not pursue a separate drug-possession case against her dating from early December, he said.

Krowiak also agreed with Orazi’s attorney, Marjorie Barlow, that the defendant will receive credit at her sentencing for the time she already spent in jail.

Contact the writer:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9132;

@dsingletonTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — George Bancroft Elementary School students got a jump on the weekend after workers fixing a water line on Albright Avenue touched off a chain of events that resulted in their early dismissal Friday.

It all started around 11 a.m. when a Pennsylvania American Water crew making repairs to a 6-inch line near the school hit an unmarked UGI Utilities natural gas service line, separating it from the main, representatives of the companies said.

With gas leaking from the broken line, UGI asked PPL Electric Utilities at 11:39 a.m. to immediately shut down power to the area as a precaution, cutting electricity to 757 customers, including the school.

The Scranton School District announced around noon that Bancroft was dismissing from the school’s Weston Field evacuation point because of the power outage.

PPL restored service to its customers shortly after 1 p.m. UGI expected to have the gas line repaired later Friday, a spokesman said.

— DAVID SINGLETON

TEXAS TWP. — Robbers in Wayne County forced a store clerk to get on the ground and bound his hands as they stole cash from a tobacco store shortly after it opened Friday, authorities said.

The men, one wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and orange pants and the other wearing a blue sweatshirt and black pants, broke into Tri-State Tobacco’s safe and stole an undetermined amount of cash at 6:40 a.m., state police at Honesdale said. They fled the Texas Twp. store on foot.

Cpl. Brian Rickard and Trooper Michael Collins are investigating.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Honesdale barracks at 570-253-7126.

— JOSEPH KOHUT

COVINGTON TWP. — A crash involving seven vehicles shut down part of Interstate 380 north and severely injured a driver Friday.

The crash happened about 1:30 p.m. in a construction zone in the northbound lanes, near mile marker 15, Trooper Bob Urban, a state police spokesman, said. A Freightliner truck driven by Nihal Gill, 43, of Brampton, Ontario, hit another Freightliner, causing a chain reaction. In all, four tractor-trailers and three passenger vehicles were involved.

Crews took Gina Bellersen, 53, of Inkerman, who drove a Honda CRV, to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton with severe injuries, troopers said. The six other drivers involved suffered minor injuries.

— CLAYTON OVER

SCRANTON — A man who died after a crash in South Side is believed to have suffered a medical emergency before the accident, the Lackawanna County coroner’s office said Friday.

Charles Wright, 69, Scranton, died late Thursday in the emergency department at Geisinger Community Medical Center after he was involved in a single-car crash earlier in the evening, Deputy Coroner Louis Stefanelli said.

The crash, which happened in the 1500 block of Cedar Avenue, remains under investigation by city police, the coroner’s office said.

— DAVID SINGLETON

SCRANTON — A city man faces charges after police said he burglarized a home Friday morning.

Officers arrested Todd Hughes, 18, 1618 Jackson St., after responding to a home in the 2000 block of Price Street about 5:50 a.m. A woman in the house called police and told them she heard a noise in the basement, then saw a man wearing a backpack leave an exterior basement door, police said. Hughes fled on foot when police arrived. They apprehended him after a brief chase.

Hughes later told officers he went into the basement in hopes of stealing money or metal, police said.

Hughes is charged with burglary and held in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $10,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29.

— CLAYTON OVER

A Wayne County woman charged with bankruptcy fraud cannot be prosecuted because federal prosecutors took too long to bring her to trial, a judge ruled.

Senior U.S. District Judge James Munley said the U.S. attorney’s office violated the speedy trial rights of Linda Ferris by waiting a year to seek an indictment against her after a magistrate judge rejected her guilty plea. He dismissed the case and barred prosecutors from re-filing charges.

Ferris, of Newfoundland, agreed in February 2017 to plead guilty to making a false claim relating to a 2013 bankruptcy petition. She was scheduled to plead guilty in March 2017,but U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick declined to accept the plea after Ferris expressed reservations.

According to a transcript of the hearing, Ferris was accused of failing to notify creditors she received a $194,000 settlement of a lawsuit.

At the plea hearing, Ferris acknowledged she did not report the settlement, but said she was acting on the advice of her bankruptcy attorney. Ferris said she still wanted to plead guilty, but Mehalchick rejected the plea, advising her that the crime required that she intentionally misled the bankruptcy court.

Under federal law, persons charged with a crime must be brought to trial within 70 days except under certain circumstances that allow time to be excluded from the calculation. Defendants often waive their speedy trial rights so there is more time to develop a defense.

Ferris did not do that. After her plea was rejected the case sat dormant for about a year before the U.S. attorney’s office secured an indictment charging her with concealing assets and an additional count of falsely reporting two properties she owned had secured liens against them. The charges carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

David Freed,U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, declined to comment on what went wrong with the case. In court documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Gotlob said the indictment was inadvertently filed under a new case number, instead of the original case number. He did not explain why there was a year-long delay in seeking an indictment, however.

Gotlob acknowledged Ferris’ speedy trial right was violated, but argued the government should be permitted to re-file the case because there was no allegation of prosecutorial misconduct.

Munley rejected the request. In his ruling the judge chided prosecutors, saying they provided no reason why the case languished for a year.

“With no legitimate reason for the delay, we find this to be negligence on the part of the government,” Munley said.

Dawn Mayko, spokeswoman for Freed, said the office is reviewing Munley’s decision to determine its options.

Contact the writer: tbesecker@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9137; @tmbeseckerTT on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE — Shavertown residents Tracy and John Calomino have been raising their 8-year-old granddaughter since she was born addicted to opioids.

Tracy Calomino said her son and his girlfriend cannot take care of her because of their opioid addictions. Spending 30 days in a rehab program is not enough to help the problem, she said.

“I think education about opioids should start in schools in third, fourth and fifth grades,” she said.

Calomino wants to adopt her granddaughter but she said if she does, she would lose state funding even though “she’s the same child with the same needs.”

She said grandparents raising their grandchildren should receive more financial assistance to support things such as counseling for the child’s mental health needs.

Calomino was one of more than 200 people who attended the 12th annual Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Conference on Friday at the Best Western Plus Genetti Hotel & Conference Center.

Statewide, about 82,000 grandparents are the sole caregivers for nearly 89,000 grandchildren, and that number is increasing due to the opioid crisis.

State Department of Aging Secretary Teresa Osborne said one of the worst effects of the opioid crisis is that more and more grandchildren are living without their parents present, and grandparents are stepping in to care for their grandchildren while their own children battle substance abuse.

“What begins as a temporary situation often results in a full-time arrangement, and we need to ensure that Pennsylvania’s grandparents are supported and have access to resources that will help them as they parent for the second time around,” Osborne said.

The event’s keynote speaker, Luzerne County Judge Jennifer Rodgers, said that as a family court judge, she interacts with and learns from families raising children in an “ever-changing world.”

Many grandparents thought they would be periodic baby sitters or companions at parks, but are unexpectedly parenting again in painful situations, she said.

“The opioid epidemic has caused many of you to be in caregiving roles,” Rodgers told those who attended the conference. “Many days, I’m confronted with situations in which I’m looking into the eyes of a grandparent who is coming to court seeking to care for and support his or her grandchildren. Oh, the pain I see.”

State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, Wilkes-Barre, introduced House Bill 1539, which was recently passed by the Legislature. It provides grandparents an opportunity to petition for temporary guardianship in 90-day increments not to exceed one year, when the parents of the children are unable to care for their children due to an alcohol or opioid addiction.

Pashinski also supported House Bill 2133 and recently announced the state would receive $479,307 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop a “kinship navigator program” that would be an informational resource for grandparents both as a website and a toll-free hotline.

Brenda Saba of Wyoming, who is raising her 11-year-old grandson with her husband, David Saba, said she, Pashinski and a small board of directors also have worked together to form an advocacy fund through the Luzerne Foundation to provide financial aid to qualified Luzerne Country grandparents raising their grandchildren.

There will be an application process for grandparents to apply for the fund. A reduced rate will be provided for them for legal services to obtain custody of their grandchildren or get through the first step, Saba said.

Saba adopted her grandson because her son could not care for him due to his drug addiction. She said she and other grandparents are dealing with the loss of their own children in addition to caring for their grandchildren.

Howard Grossman, chairman of the NEPA Intergenerational Coalition, said two support groups for grandparents raising their grandchildren meet in Wilkes-Barre, one at the Pittston Memorial Library and one in Wayne and Pike counties, and “we want more.”

Contact the writer:

dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com;

570-821-2115;

@CVAllabaugh on Twitter