Crime & Courts

November 20, 2009

court briefs

WILKES-BARRE – Prosecutors in a case in which a Virginia man was recently convicted and sentenced for killing a Dallas Township man in 2007 filed court papers stating his reasons for appealing his life sentence have no merit.

Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll and Assistant District Attorney Frank Barletta said in court papers that Harlow Cuadra’s complaints do not entitle him to relief.

Cuadra, of Virginia, was convicted in March in the death of Dallas Township resident Bryan Kocis, who prosecutors say was his rival in the gay pornography industry.

Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, Cuadra’s business partner in an escort business and the production of gay pornographic movies, were arrested on May 15, 2007, in the slaying of Kocis, 44, in Kocis’ home. Cuadra and Kerekes were sentenced to life in prison. Kerekes had pleaded guilty to homicide charges.

Musto Carroll and Barletta stated Cuadra’s complaint that autopsy photos were shown more than once at his trial were not objected to by his attorneys. The judge expressed his disapproval of the repeated presentation of the photos, and at that point they were not shown again.

Musto Carroll and Barletta also state that admission of evidence of the transcript from a recorded conversation, which Cuadra opposes, appears to have no “authority requiring this court to give a cautionary instruction (to jurors) under these circumstances.”

The prosecutors said other matters that Cuadra complained of on appeal in August require no argument because prosecutors already made their argument at Cuadra’s February trial and stand by them.

WILKES-BARRE – A man charged with furnishing beer to a minor waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Wilkes-Barre Central Court on Wednesday.

Robert P. Johnson, 21, of Bridgewater, N.J., waived four counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor to county court.

State police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement alleged Johnson purchased two 12 packs of beer and a 40 ounce bottle of liquor for two minors at a restaurant on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, on Sept. 14.

WILKES-BARRE – State police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement withdrew charges of furnishing alcohol to minors against James Anthony Martens, 22, of Wilkes-Barre, during a preliminary hearing in Wilkes-Barre Central Court on Wednesday.

Police had accused Martens of purchasing a 12 pack of beer for two minors at a restaurant on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, on Sept. 16, according to a news release.

SHICKSHINNY – A Wilkes-Barre man who led Salem Township police on a pursuit will face charges in county court.

John Wiggins, 35, of Northampton Street, appeared for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday before District Judge John Hasay, who sent charges of fleeing and eluding police, recklessly endangering another person and driving with a suspended license to county court.

Five traffic violations against Wiggins were dismissed.

Township police allege Wiggins was speeding on Route 11 and failed to stop, initiating a pursuit on Oct. 2.

WILKES-BARRE – A Hettlerville man was found guilty Thursday by a Luzerne County jury of having inappropriate contact with a then-8-year-old boy.

James Curtis Miller, 38, of Haskel Road, was found guilty of charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child less than 13-years-old; indecent sexual assault; terroristic threats, indecent exposure and corruption of minors after the jury deliberated for just over an hour.

Miller’s trial lasted one day before Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph Augello and he will be sentenced on the charges on March 1, 2010.

According to court records, a Children and Youth worker contacted police and said she was investigating the sexual assault of a now-15-year-old male that occurred when he was 8.

The boy told investigators that Miller fondled him while he would sleep and that Miller made him do the same in return.

The boy said Miller committed other acts and said Miller told him that if he told anyone he would kill him. The incidents happened a number of times, the boy said.

SCRANTON – A federal jury acquitted a Plymouth man on Thursday of stealing money from a Pittston bank when he was employed by an armored courier service in 2006.

Dana Nickol was one of three Brink’s employees indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2007. Nickol was charged with bank theft and bank embezzlement.

Federal court records alleged Nickol, as employed as a courier with Brink’s, picked up two money bags containing $65,000 from First National Community Bank in Pittston on Oct. 17, 2006.

Authorities alleged Nickol placed the money bags in the cab area instead of the secured area of the armored truck, federal court records say.

After finishing other pickups, they drove to the Brink’s vault in Wilkes-Barre, where Nickol, according to a federal pre-trial report, said he delivered the bank’s money bag to two Brink’s employees.

An audit by the bank in October discovered the missing money.

Nickol was found not guilty of the charges after a two day jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge Richard Conaboy.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Francis Sempa previously said that the money has not been recovered.

Brink’s employees Joshua Rinehimer, of Mountain Top, admitted that he lied to the FBI and was accepted into the pre-trial diversion program, similar to probation, and David Newton, of Wilkes-Barre, pleaded guilty to giving false information to federal investigators.

Newton is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.

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