Law
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PITTSTON — A man serving a probation sentence on child endangerment convictions was arrested after city police allege he discharged four rounds from a firearm and terrorized his girlfriend early Sunday morning.
Michael Thomas Law, 31, of Swallow Street, Pittston, admitted to firing a handgun into the air because he was upset with his girlfriend, Cydney Magana, according to court records.
Police allege they recovered a 9mm Taurus with a round in the chamber from Law’s Nissan Rogue including four spent rounds on the sidewalk in front of Magana’s residence on Pine Street.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police responded to Pine Street for a man, identified as Law, sitting inside a Nissan revving its engine just after 5 a.m.
Law had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath, police said.
A handgun and a holster was next to Law inside the vehicle.
Magana told police her mother woke her up around 2:40 a.m. when her mother observed Law driving recklessly pass their residence. Magana called Law who told her he was going drinking at a friend’s house.
Several hours later, Magana was awakened again when Law returned to her residence revving the engine on his vehicle and discharging a firearm, the complaint says.
Court records say Law, Magana, 28, and Law’s mother, Joann Ortmann, 62, were charged by police in Plymouth and Duryea in April 2019, with child endangerment offenses.
Law and Magana were accused of failing to stop Ortmann from abusing a then 9-year-old girl.
Ortmann resented the girl because she felt the child “snitched” on them about their living conditions when they resided in Duryea before relocating to Plymouth, court records say.
Law and Magana each pleaded guilty to separate counts of endangering the welfare of children. Law was sentenced Dec. 13, 2019, by Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough to three years probation and Magana was sentenced Dec. 18, 2019, to five years probation. Ortmann was sentenced Dec. 2, 2019, to two years, 10 months to 10 years in state prison on charges of child endangerment and false imprisonment.
Law was arraigned by District Judge Joseph Halesey in Hanover Township on charges of firearms not to be carried without a license, terroristic threats, loitering and prowling at night, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. He was jailed at the county correctional facility for lack of $50,000 bail.