Monday, May 21, 2012
Easton police say Nathaniel Watson spit on a police sergeant after being arrested.
A drunken HIV-positive teen spit in the face of an Easton police officer after the teen was found lying in the 8th and Spring Garden streets intersection early Saturday, court records say. The teen also is accused of spitting blood in the back of a patrol car. Nathaniel Watson, 19 – knowing he is HIV-positive – spit in the face of a police sergeant in the police station’s booking room, the records say. Watson’s mother provided paperwork confirming her son is HIV-positive, the records say. According to the records, police found Watson around 2:34am smelling of alcohol and with bloodshot eyes. He began yelling and swearing loudly, even after police told him repeatedly to stop. Then he spit blood in the back of the patrol car and later spit …
40.69272
-75.21979
N 8th St & Spring Garden St, Easton, PA
/articles/police-man-with-hiv-spits-in-officer-s-face
/locations/7069615
For the sixth time this year, a bomb threat was called into Easton Area High School.
Easton Area High School was briefly evacuated Monday afternoon after someone called in a bomb threat. It was the sixth such threat made this year, and -- as in the past -- a search of the building revealed no explosives. Students and staff members left the building at 1:24 p.m., and were allowed back inside within 10 minutes, according to a district news release.
40.68139
-75.25051
Easton Area High School
2601 William Penn Hwy, Easton, PA
/articles/bomb-threat-reported-at-easton-high-cf0f80cc
873842
/locations/7066420
Body found in Lehigh River Sunday was missing Easton man Christopher Flynn.
The man found in the Lehigh River in Easton Sunday was a 34-year-old South Side resident reported missing last week. Christopher Flynn of Mauch Chunk Street was last seen on May 15. According to the Express-Times, Flynn was entered into the FBI's missing person database three days later. On Sunday afternoon, city police were called to the banks of the Lehigh River behind Larry Holmes Drive, for a report of a body in the water. Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek said Monday that the body was that of Flynn. He said an autospy is pending to determine his cause of death.
Police Chief Greg Dorney stresses safety with new state bike law, lots of township bike paths and a bike derby on June 13.
With a new state law on the books and the weather getting warmer, Forks Township police will push bike safety over the next few months. The Forks Township Police Department will hold its 9th Annual Bike Derby from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the community park on Wednesday, June 13. For Police Chief Greg Dorney, bike safety is a must. "We have bike paths throughout the whole community," Dorney said. "Forks Township has invested a lot of money in the bike paths and developers have made them a part of their projects." State laws regarding bike safety have also changed. Some new rules of the road went into effect at the start of April. The laws stress that motorists must leave a 4-foot cushion of safety when passing a bicyclist. Bicycle riders also …
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Police say a man's body was discovered behind the downtown WaWa Sunday afternoon.
A man's body was found in the Lehigh River in Easton Sunday afternoon, city police said. According to a news release, police were called out on a report of a body in the river around 4:48 p.m. The body -- that of a white male -- was pulled from the river behind the WaWa on Larry Holmes Drive with the help of emergency crews. Police say they are investigating the case with the Northampton County Coroner.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Grandview Drive to get two 25 mph speed limit signs after Board of Supervisors approves resident's request.
The Palmer Township Board of Supervisors has signed off on a resident's request for speed limit signs on Grandview Drive. A resident of Wayne Street had made a request asking township officials to consider installing speed limit signs for Grandview Drive where it tees off from Freemansburg Avenue. The supervisors approved the motion for two signs at the board's meeting Monday night after little discussion. The speed limit will be 25 mph. The township's traffic safety committee recommended to supervisors that the two, 25 mph speed limit signs be considered after reviewing information about traffic in the area. In an April 30 traffic safety committee memo regarding the request, it stated that Grandview Drive is designated as a collector …
Should George Hitcho be sentenced to death or life in prison for his first-degree murder conviction?
- POLICE & FIRE
-
Friday, May 18
A Northampton County jury found George Hitcho Jr. guilty of murder in the first degree Thursday in the shooting death of Freemansburg police Officer Robert Lasso. The case now enters the penalty phase in which Hitcho will be sentenced to either death or life in prison. Tell us what you think by voting in our poll and adding your comments below. Three people have been executed since Pennsylvania reinstituted capital punishment in 1978. There were two executions in 1995 and one in 1999. In those cases, the convicts ended appeals and asked for death, according to a Philly.com report. Hitcho shot Lasso as the officer responded to a complaint called in by a neighbor on Aug. 11. Lasso was fighting off a pair of snarling dogs with his back to the…
Thursday, May 17, 2012
George Hitcho Jr. is found guilty of first degree murder; punishment phase of trial to determine whether he gets death penalty to start Monday.
- POLICE & FIRE
-
Thursday, May 17
George Hitcho Jr. has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Freemansburg police officer Robert Lasso, WFMZ-TV, Channel 69 has reported. The jury will next be asked to determine whether Hitcho will be put to death or put in prison for the rest of his life in the punishment phase of the trial, scheduled to start on Monday. Attorneys for the prosecution and defense finished closing arguments and Northampton County Judge Anthony Beltrami gave the jury its instructions this afternoon, according to The Express Times. The verdict came rapidly thereafter. The jury apparently did not buy defense arguments that Hitcho's mental abilities have been impaired over the years due to multiple head traumas or that he reacted to Lasso …
New Jersey man faces 14 drug counts for allegedly exchanging prescriptions at Walgreens pharmacy. It's the fourth case this year.
A New Jersey man is being held on a multitude of drug charges for trying to obtain prescription drugs at the Walgreens pharmacy in Palmer Township with forged prescriptions. Jeremy James Porterfield, 25, of Newark was arraigned Tuesday and faces up to 54 years and 60 days in prison and fines up to $581,000 on 14 different drug charges, according to District Justice Judge Jackie Taschner, who arraigned him. This is the fourth case of prescription forgery at Walgreens this year. In January, police reported a man on crutches from East Stroudsburg tried to get the pain medication Oxycodone. In February, a Stockertown woman allegedly tried for Ambien, Vicodin and birth control. And just this week, a Philadelphia man has been charged with trying…
40.681579
-75.249243
Walgreens Store Palmer Township
2535 William Penn Hwy, Palmer Township, PA
/articles/multitude-of-drug-charges-filed-in-palmer-township-crime
2082547
/locations/7038669
Forks Township officials seeking pre-approval of burn ban ordinance from DEP before it goes before Board of Supervisors for vote.
After more than a month of having a ban on burning, the Forks Township Board of Supervisors is mulling whether to make it permanent. "I am very supportive of a township-wide burning ban," Supervisor Bob Egolf said. "Forks offers complete garbage and recycling pickups and brush recycling at our public works complex." Forks Township does allow homeowners to have open fires on their properties; however, supervisors are considering a repeal of the township's burn ordinance so that open burning would be illegal at all times. "From what I have learned, open burning is not only dangerous and also detrimental to our environment -- the air we breathe," Egolf continued. "If we adopt a burning ban, I believe our residents will comply." Township …
40.714256
-75.219243
Forks Township
1606 Sullivan Trl, Easton, PA
/articles/forks-township-mulls-permanent-burn-ban
1663718
/locations/7038804
BethTwp
10:42 pm on Friday, May 18, 2012
There really is no difference between life in prison and the death penalty. There are many sitting on death row for over 30 years. We are footing the bills. more ›