Police: Beware of scam callers
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. - Township police are cautioning residents to be on the lookout for callers scamming people out of money.
A South Abington Twp. man got a call Saturday from a man claiming to be from the Publishers Clearing House telling him he'd won a $500,000 check, $75,000 in cash and a new car. The caller then asked him to send $350 via a Green Dot Moneypak card to cover IRS taxes, police said.
Police traced the call back to Kingston, Jamaica, and are urging residents to contact authorities if they receive similar fraudulent calls.
DUI checkpoints in Monroe County
STROUDSBURG - State police announced DUI checkpoints will be in place throughout Monroe County this weekend.
From today until Sunday, police will be conducting sobriety checks and roving patrols.
The legal limit in Pennsylvania is a .08 percent blood-alcohol concentration. A DUI is a misdemeanor offense with varying penalties of fines ranging from $300 to $5,000, six months of probation or even up to five years in prison, state police said.
Selenski case may be headed to trial
WILKES-BARRE - Hugo Selenski is ready for trial.
Like many judges have done before, Luzerne County Judge Fred Pierantoni on Thursday afternoon set a firm date for Mr. Selenski's double-murder trial to begin.
Earlier Thursday, that looked very much in doubt. Mr. Selenski's court-appointed attorneys asked to withdraw from the case, claiming the court was subjecting them to "involuntary servitude" by capping funding for Mr. Selenski's defense and making them work for free since October. But after a rare, closed-door session with the judge, known as an ex parte hearing, Mr. Selenski's attorneys Shelley Centini and Edward Rymsza withdrew their motion. Judge Pierantoni then scheduled the trial to begin June 24 at 9:30 a.m.
Mr. Selenski, 39, is slated to stand trial for the 2002 killings of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and Mr. Kerkowski's girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were found buried in the yard of Mr. Selenski's Kingston Twp. home in May 2003.