Sunday, May 19, 2013
Here's a round-up of unusual police news from the Lehigh Valley.
$2,500 ransom demanded from woman, police say: Upper Macungie Police said a woman received a phone call Monday stating that her father was being held captive. The caller demanded a $2,500 ransom. However, the woman later found out her father was safe. Bethlehem man charged with bigamy: A woman with a marriage certificate from New York complained to police that her husband married another woman in Northampton County, according to court records. Man exposed self to cops, threatened judge, police say: An Easton man was charged with disorderly conduct Wednesday morning after he allegedly exposed himself and cursed at police officers, urinated on police paperwork, and threatened a district judge. Police officer breaks toe chasing man at Palmer …
Friday, May 17, 2013
Francisco Miranda eluded law enforcement for 18 years in the 1994 South Bethlehem killing of Jorge Velazquez. Now, he will spend the next 10-20 years in prison.
A man who spent 18 years on Pennsylvania’s Most Wanted list pleaded guilty on Friday to a 1994 murder in a South Bethlehem parking lot. Francisco G. Miranda, 50, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, according to published reports. Under the terms of a plea bargain, Miranda will serve the maximum sentence that would have been allowed at the time of the murder, according to The Morning Call. Miranda eluded authorities for 18 years while he lived in the Dominican Republic but he didn’t flee the country on his own, the newspaper reported. New Jersey officials unwittingly deported Miranda—just weeks after the Bethlehem homicide—after he was arrested on drug charges under an assumed name…
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Man walked into Bon-Ton at Westgate Mall, stuffed a garbage bag with Izod shirts and walked out, police say.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Thursday, May 16
A man walked into the men’s department at The Bon-Ton at the Westgate Mall, took out a black garbage bag, stuffed it with about 50 Izod shirts, then walked out of the store, Bethlehem police said. Today, police released a surveillance photo of the man and is asking for the public’s help in finding the thief. The stolen shirts are valued at about $1,400. The incident occurred at about 1:45 p.m. Monday. Anyone with information is asked to call the Bethlehem Police Department at 610-865-7187.
40.644563
-75.404573
Bon-Ton
2524 Schoenersville Rd, <span class='street2'>Westgate Mall</span>, Bethlehem, PA
/articles/thief-stuffed-50-shirts-into-garbage-bag-police
2354017
/locations/9394238
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Woman with marriage certificate from New York complained to police that her husband married another woman in Northampton County, according to court records.
Easton police say a Bethlehem man got married in the city earlier this year despite already being married to another woman. Edward Odin, 50, of the 1400 block of W. Broad Street, is charged with bigamy and unsworn falsification. According to court records, Odin's wife contacted police in late January to say that her husband had married another woman. She provided police with a copy of her marriage certificate to Odin from New York City. Police said they went to Northampton County and found a marriage license documenting Odin's marriage to the second woman from January. According to police, Odin claimed in court records that he had never been married before. Odin was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge James Stocklas in Easton. Bigamy…
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Ecstasy and cocaine found within reach of minor daughter of arrested couple, police say.
Bethlehem police raided a South Side home early Tuesday morning and arrested a man and a woman on multiple felony drug charges, law enforcement officials said. Police brought a search warrant to 1135½ E. Third St., the home of Ramon A. Headley, 29, and Desiree Helena Bostic, 24, as a result of an investigation into illegal narcotics sales, police said. The raid and search was done at a little after 6 a.m. Inside, police found quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, police said. A child, the daughter of Headley and Bostic, was also inside the home and had the cocaine and ecstasy within her reach, according to an arrest affidavit. Police also found a .38-caliber pistol, cash, drug paraphernalia, gang-related paraphernalia, cell…
40.612477
-75.361415
1135 E 3rd St, Bethlehem, PA
/articles/police-raid-south-side-home-2-arrested-on-drug-charges
/locations/9389949
Monday, May 13, 2013
Law enforcement response to a domestic disturbance on 3rd Avenue leads to drug arrests, police say.
Bethlehem police called to a Third Avenue home for a domestic dispute found “large” amounts of marijuana and heroin, a stolen gun and $9,000 cash, police said. The drugs, gun and cash, along with two cars, a motorcycle, two more guns and drug paraphernalia were all seized as part of the investigation, police said. Alexander Bernardini, 42, 419 Third Ave., Bethlehem, was charged with multiple felony counts including three counts of possession with intent to deliver drugs, three counts of prohibited possession of firearms and one count of receiving stolen property. He was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and simple assault. Mildred Martinez, 32, of 1215 Livingston St., Bethlehem also was charged with two counts of …
40.6201
-75.38817
419 3rd Ave, Bethlehem, PA
/articles/drugs-guns-cars-and-cash-seized-police-say
/locations/9382945
Sunday, May 12, 2013
The older sister is charged with assault, resisting arrest after she kicked the side of a squad car after police took her into custody, according to court papers.
A woman came after her sister with a kitchen knife in a South Bethlehem apartment then resisted arrest after police arrived, according to court papers. Xesenia Vives Martinez, 24, of Philadelphia, kicked the side of a squad car as police tried to put her inside, causing a dent in the door and other damage, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. Police responded to a second-floor apartment at 1307 E. Fourth St. at a little after 4 p.m. Thursday on a report of women fighting with knives, according to the affidavit written by arresting Officer Joshua John Schnalzer. The victim, Martinez’s 23-year-old sister, told police that she disarmed Martinez, threw the knife and a fight followed, the affidavit says. During the fight, Martinez …
40.611461
-75.35623
1307 E 4th St, Bethlehem, PA
/articles/sisters-get-in-knife-fight-in-south-side-police
/locations/9380273
Hellertown man accused of stealing copper valves and engine parts from railroad cars and braided copper cable from decommissioned PPL transmission towers.
A Hellertown man made more than $35,000 in less than 10 months by selling scrap metal he—with some help—had stolen from railroad cars parked in South Bethlehem and decommissioned electrical transmission towers on South Mountain, Bethlehem police said. On Friday, Corey C. Merwarth, 34, of 13 E. Depot St., was arrested and charged with multiple felony theft and conspiracy counts and sent to prison in lieu of $20,000 bail. Court records say Merwarth is a "known heroin addict with an extensive criminal history." The investigation that led to Merwarth’s arrest began in September when Bethlehem police received a report from Lehigh Valley Rail Management that more than 700 copper valves had been stolen from railroad grain cars—also known as …
40.60399
-75.336269
2400 Commerce Center Blvd, Bethlehem, PA
/articles/thief-netted-35-000-selling-stolen-metal-police-say
/locations/9380280
Here's a round-up of unusual police news from the Lehigh Valley.
House painter stole Picasso artwork, police say: Prosecutors in New York said an Easton man stole $100,000 worth of artwork—including a piece by Picasso—from an estate he had been hired to paint. The 42-year-old man is charged with grand larceny, money laundering and identity theft in two different New York counties, and faces up to 26 years in prison, according to a news release from the Kings County, N.Y. (Brooklyn) district attorney's office. Babysitters leave child home alone, steal laptop and cash, police say: A South Bethlehem couple who left their 10-month-old daughter in the care of a nephew and his friend returned home to find their infant home alone and that they had been cleaned out of $1,500 cash, a laptop computer and a video …
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Anthony 'Skinny' Serratore of Bethlehem was one of six leaders who distributed a pound of crystal meth a week around the Lehigh Valley.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Saturday, May 11
A Bethlehem man who was part of a million dollar crystal methamphetamine ring was sentenced Friday to five to 10 years in prison for his crimes, according to published reports. Anthony “Skinny” Serratore, 36, of 1801 Chester Road was one of six men arrested in October for being one of six leaders of a Lehigh Valley-wide ring that distributed as much as one pound of crystal meth a week with a street value of about $90,000. Serratore pleaded guilty in March to two charges with the understanding that his minimum sentence would be four years, according to The Express Times. But Judge Paula Roscioli rejected that deal because a pre-sentence investigation found that Serratore had committed a felony as a juvenile, suggesting a longer minimum …
Rich
5:17 am on Monday, May 13, 2013
DOES OMG Stand for using God's name with casual disrespect for commercial gain. Hey, maybe Salisbury Patch can do an OMM (Mohammed) column and give disrepected Muslims equal treatment. Then The current OMO administration can lie again blaming that as the vague cause for more killings instead of a planned terrorist attack. more ›