Saturday, May 18, 2013
Phillipsburg man charged with having psychedelic mushrooms in Lower Nazareth Township hotel.
Melvin Lee Pettaway, 43, also is accused of giving police a false identity during the incident on April 12, around 7:30 p.m. After police allegedly found two bags of psilocybin mushrooms inside Pettaway’s room at the Hampton Inn on Route 248, he told them his name was Kyle Thomas, court records say. Pettaway’s file does not contain an affidavit of probable cause, which provides details of the arrest and evidence. The file does say that an arrest warrant was approved April 23. The file’s lead sheet lists Pettaway’s address as 314 B S. Main St., Phillipsburg. But another sheet in the file lists his current address at Hotel Lafayette, 11 N. 4th St., Easton. The file also says Pettaway worked at the McDonald’s inside the Crayola Experience…
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Easton resident Yolanda Santana accused of writing checks from an apparently fictitious company. She allegedly cashed them at Walmart in Lower Nazareth Township.
Colonial Regional police have made an arrest in the case of an Easton woman accused of successfully cashing phony checks shortly before last Christmas at the Walmart in Lower Nazareth Township. The checks display the name of what may be a fictitious healthcare services company in Reading but the account numbers and routing numbers come back to a Scranton-area company that provides home care and medical staffing services to senior citizens. Yolanda C. Santana, 21, is facing two counts of forgery for allegedly cashing two counterfeit checks for $398 each, payable to herself. However, court records also say Santana allegedly cashed a total of eight checks worth $3,144 – all at the Walmart in the Northampton Crossings shopping center. Two of…
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Nazareth Area Middle School was under a lockdown Wednesday morning for an hour as the Upper Nazareth Police Department found a bullet in bathroom.
The Nazareth Area Middle School was under a precautionary lockdown for an hour Wednesday morning after a bullet was found on the floor in the boys bathroom, school officials and Upper Nazareth police said. "We're all good now," Upper Nazareth Community Policing Officer W.K. Arthur said outside the school to Nazareth Patch shortly after the lockdown was declared over at 11:30 a.m. Arthur showed Nazareth Patch the bullet that was found and said he believed it possibly fell out of the pocket of a hunter. It was a .22-caliber bullet. School officials sent notices out to parents that an eighth-grade male student reported to the Main Office that he found a bullet on the floor in the eighth-grade boys bathroom. The administration reviewed all …
Monday, May 13, 2013
State Police at Belfast are seeking information on a vehicle theft over weekend in Nazareth.
State Police at Belfast are seeking information on a vehicle theft that took place in Nazareth sometime over the weekend. State Police are reporting that $15 was swiped from an unlocked vehicle on the 400 block of S. Main Street sometime between Friday and Sunday. The identity of the victim is being withheld. State Trooper Seth J. Kelly is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to call State Police at Belfast at 620-759-6106.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Shut twice in the past month because of sinkholes, Northwood Avenue in Palmer Township has opened once again.
Northwood Avenue is back in business. Palmer Township Police Chief Larry Palmer said the sinkhole that shut Northwood Avenue, the key road connecting Forks Township to Palmer and Lower Nazareth townships, earlier this week has been repaired and that the road is open again. Palmer said Northwood Avenue opened between late Thursday afternoon and early evening. Frank Cullen, who lives near the sinkhole and has expressed fear for his family's safety, said that the road opened at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. But Cullen still says there are plenty of unresolved issues. He said one issue is vehicle operators such as 18-wheelers and cars violating speed limits. "The pounding, abuse and compaction these vehicles cause will lead to other incidents," Cullen …
These are the road projects PennDOT has planned for around the Nazareth Area this week.
ROAD NAME: PA 248/Bath Pike BETWEEN: Walnut Drive AND Gracedale Avenue ROAD NAME: PA 512/Lehigh Avenue BETWEEN: Sullivan Trail Road AND East Main Street ROAD NAME: BETWEEN: Belfast Interchange AND Wind Gap Interchange (Bushkill Twp.) ROAD NAME: BETWEEN: PA Ave AND Monroe County Line (Plainfield Twp.)
Here's a round-up of unusual police news from the Lehigh Valley.
House painter stole Picasso artwork, police say: Prosecutors in New York said an Easton man stole $100,000 worth of artwork—including a piece by Picasso—from an estate he had been hired to paint. The 42-year-old man is charged with grand larceny, money laundering and identity theft in two different New York counties, and faces up to 26 years in prison, according to a news release from the Kings County, N.Y. (Brooklyn) district attorney's office. Babysitters leave child home alone, steal laptop and cash, police say: A South Bethlehem couple who left their 10-month-old daughter in the care of a nephew and his friend returned home to find their infant home alone and that they had been cleaned out of $1,500 cash, a laptop computer and a video …
Friday, May 10, 2013
A former Nazareth Area Middle School drama teacher accused of repeated sex assaults on student scheduled to have preliminary hearing in June.
The Nazareth Area Middle School teacher accused of repeated sexual assaults of a male student over more than two years is now out of jail. Shawn William Salevsky, 39, of Lower Macungie Township, posted bail earlier this week and is out of Northampton County Prison, according to court records. Court records indicated that Salevsky posted 10 percent of his $75,000 bail. Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing, originally scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday before District Judge John Capobianco of Nazareth, has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. June 19. Salevsky was fired by the school district April 22. The alleged incidents occurred between January 2011 and March 15 of this year, according to court records. According to several websites, Salevsky is a graduate …
Karla Dewey admits Friday in Northampton County Court to setting fire to her townhome last March while her 3-year-old son was inside.
A Nazareth woman pleaded guilty Friday to setting her townhouse on fire last year. Karla Dewey, 31, of Nazareth, admitted before Northampton County Judge Anthony Beltrami Friday to arson and welfare endangerment charges in connection with setting fire to the 40 N. Green St. home she rented with her 3-year-old son inside, the Morning Call reported. Nazareth Police Chief Thomas Trachta said Friday that he would not comment on the case. Dewey's defense attorney, Christopher Shipman, could not be reached for comment. Assistant District Attorney John Obrecht, who prosecuted the case, also could not be reached for comment. Dewey was accused of starting a fire in March 2012 that destroyed the end unit of a row of townhouses at 40 N. Green St.—…
Thursday, May 9, 2013
State Police at Belfast report injuries in motor vehicle accident in Stockertown Wednesday.
Two people suffered injuries in a motor vehicle accident in Stockertown Wednesday afternoon, state police said. State Police at Belfast reported that two people were injured when their vehicles collided at 5:09 p.m. Wednesday on Route 191 where it intersects with Route 33. State Police Investigator Nathan Branosky said that Veronica M. Skidmore, 61, of Saylorsburg was driving a 2011 Subaru Forester when she went through a stop sign on Route 33 and onto Route 191. That's when she struck a 2012 Ford Fusion driven by James A. West, 50, of Nazareth that was southbound on Route 191. West's vehicle was struck on the passenger side, causing Skidmore to travel through the intersection and come to a final rest on the northbound lane of Route 191 …
Ben Miller
10:33 am on Monday, May 20, 2013
I believe the message it sends to the kids is that the school is going to do everything they can, within reason, to keep them safe. What if there had been a gun on one of those students or in a locker and they didn't search? Everybody would be asking why the school didn't do more, and rightfully so. The Supreme Court ruled that both locker searches and searches with a metal detector may be done … more ›