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Friday, March 07, 2003 Page: 6A
WILKES-BARRE
Man gets probation
in traffic incident
Robert Kulick, 54, of Old Mill Road in Laflin, was sentenced Thursday to
one year probation for reckless endangerment.
He pleaded guilty to the charge in November.
Police said Kulick on March 29, 2001, became angry when Constable John
Anderson, who was directing traffic, advised him the Convention Hall parking
lot in Pittston Township was full.
After trying to enter the lot several times, Kulick got out of the vehicle,
yelled and cursed at Anderson to get out of his way, police said. Kulick
re-entered the vehicle and accelerated forward, striking Anderson and knocking
him to the ground, according to arrest papers.
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge Gifford Cappellini
sentenced Kulick. Cappellini also ordered Kulick to pay $4,000 and write a
letter of apology to the victim.
WILKES-BARRE
New hearing set in
homicide evidence
A county judge will not decide whether prosecutors may use expert testimony
about certain evidence in a double homicide case until after another hearing.
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., in an
order issued Thursday, scheduled that hearing for March 19 – five days before
jury selection in Henry Christopher Stubbs III’s double-homicide case is
scheduled to resume.
The judge made the ruling after a hearing Wednesday related to testing done
on fiber evidence in the case.
Defense attorneys Al Flora and Shelley Centini are challenging the
admissibility of expert testimony about the fibers. The hearing was to
determine whether investigators used proper protocols in testing the evidence.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Flora said prosecutors failed prove why the
evidence should be allowed at trial. He said prosecutors never established
what type of fiber was tested, what the results of the test were, or how they
were compared.
Lupas said that did not have to be discussed at this hearing and it would
be addressed at the trial.
Olszewski seemed unmoved by the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses,
and Lupas later asked for a chance to produce more testimony in the matter.
WILKES-BARRE
Man faces sentence
in indecent assault
Michael Anderson, 35, of Charles Street in Luzerne, was found guilty
Wednesday of two counts of indecent assault.
A Luzerne County jury also found Anderson not guilty of two counts of
unlawful restraint.
Police said Anderson on Jan. 24 assaulted a female inside a Kingston home.
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph Augello will sentence
Anderson at 10 a.m. April 14.
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Violi prosecuted the case. Attorney
Robert Roote defended Anderson.
WILKES-BARRE
Estate gets $15,000
over traffic death
The estate of a 79-year-old woman killed in a hit-and-run collision was
awarded $15,000 in a settlement Wednesday from the other driver’s insurance
company.
The Progressive Insurance Co., on behalf of its client, Alan Denman,
offered to pay the settlement to the estate of Doris Gregorio.
Police said Denman, who has a history of driving-related crimes, rammed the
back of Gregorio’s vehicle on July 21, pushing her car into a utility pole on
Wyoming Avenue in Forty Fort. Gregorio died of multiple traumatic injuries
from the collision.
Denman pleaded guilty in December to charges of accidents involving death
or personal injury and driving with a suspended license.
He was sentenced in January to 1 1/2 to three years in prison on the
charges.
WILKES-BARRE
Car-related business
ordered to cease
A Luzerne County judge on Wednesday ordered a Jackson Township business to
stop storing, dismantling and selling automobiles and other items on its
property.
Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.’s ruling came in
response to the township’s lawsuit against Raymond Malak.
Township officials said Malak continued to operate his towing and auto
parts business in violation of the township zoning ordinance. His activities
are a danger to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the
township, township officials said.
The ruling also orders Malak to obey with the ordinance, remove all tires,
abandoned and disabled vehicles, automobile parts and junk from the property
within 30 days.
The judge also denied the township’s request for attorney fees.