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Friday, March 07, 2003     Page: 9A

HAZLE TWP.
    Hazleton teenager
   
faces drug charges
   
A Hazleton man has been charged with drug offenses after he overdosed on a
substance believed to be heroin in February, police announced Wednesday.
   
Christopher William Barrett, 18, has been charged with simple possession of
a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, said state police
at Hazleton. Trooper Michael J. Borosh responded to a home on Upper Street in
Pardeesville, Hazle Township, on the afternoon of Feb. 11 for a reported
overdose.
   
Borosh forced his way through a locked bathroom door and found Barrett
lying on the floor, apparently under the influence of a drug. A hypodermic
needle and two spoons with suspected heroin residue were found on the floor
next to Barrett, Borosh said. During a pat down, rolling papers and two small
plastic bags with a substance believed to be heroin were also found.
   
Barrett was treated at Hazleton General Hospital and released. Barrett
failed to respond to a summons to appear before District Justice Thomas
Sharkey and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
   

   
HAZLETON
   

   
Report of abduction
   
turns out unfounded
   
A police search for a possible abductor ended peacefully without charges
Wednesday evening at 7 p.m., when state police took a Hazleton man into
custody.
   
Police said William Randall Tunkle, 38, of 128 E. Broad St., pushed a woman
from the drivers seat to the passenger seat of her car at 4 p.m. at the Kmart
in Sugarloaf Township. Tunkle then got into the drivers seat and drove off,
said state police, Hazleton. But Tunkle knew the woman – Denise M. Liguori,
39, of Hanover Court, Hazleton.
   
The incident was reported by James Liguori, her husband. A friend had
called him to tell him what happened. James Liguori then saw his wife’s 1995
purple Grand Am at the Kmart at 5:30. After a search, police found Tunkle and
Denise Liguori at Kmart at 7 p.m. and took Tunkle into custody.
   
The incident was not an abduction, state police concluded Wednesday night.
But Tunkle might be arrested on outstanding warrants from Florida and Georgia,
police said.