Crime News

Cabbie Robber Faces 6½ to 20 Years in Prison

Judge hands down stiff sentence to SouthSide robber, despite questions about witnesses.

A Bethlehem man who was convicted in an April SouthSide stickup of a cab driver was sentenced to serve six-and-a-half to 20 years in state prison on Friday. Manuel Martinez, 44, got the stiff prison sentence from Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano despite questions that were raised about the truthfulness of the prosecution’s witnesses, according to The Express Times. Martinez’s attorney, Tony Rybak, said he will appeal. According to the arrest record, Martinez walked up to the cab at Broadway and Fiot Street early Easter morning and pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at the cab driver’s head and demanded cash. He ran off with $156, but a passenger in the cab told police she saw Martinez enter a home at 715 Broadway, near the …

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Slow Taxi Arrival Prompts Drunken Outburst

Police charge West Side man after he bikes to cab company office to allegedly fight with dispatcher.

  Frustrated and angry over his wait for a taxi ride, a drunk West Bethlehem man rode his bicycle to the cab company’s office and allegedly got into a fight with a dispatcher and “trashed” the office, Bethlehem police said. Jason Duncan, 28, of 1548 Valley Road, was charged with defiant trespass, disorderly conduct, harassment, criminal mischief and public drunkenness as a result of his visit to Lehigh Valley Transportation’s offices at 1801 W. Market St. at a little after 3:30 a.m. Saturday, police said.

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