Court briefs
Suspect acquitted Ralph A. Falco was acquitted in Fayette County court of possession, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of 5.7 grams of marijuana.
Connellsville police had charged that Falco, 27, of Connellsville sold $70 worth of the drug to an undercover informant in the parking lot of a Route 119 Pizza Hut on Nov. 17, 2000. Court records indicate that Falco was arrested last April.
Falco said that the he was entrapped by police into making the sale.
Judge Ralph C. Warman presided over the matter.
Defendant convicted
Daun Grogan of Pittsburgh was convicted Wednesday of delivery of 17 grams of crack cocaine.
The 38-year-old was also convicted of possession and possession with intent to deliver the drug in Fayette County Court.
Police alleged that he sold crack to an undercover informant in the parking lot of Warehouse Groceries along Route 119 in Bullskin Township on Jan. 27. Police charged that he charged $900 for the crack cocaine.
Grogan was arrested shortly after the undercover drug buy.
Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi will sentence him at a later date
Not-guilty verdict
Fayette County jurors acquitted 31-year-old Dennis J. Mayer of breaking into a North Union Township home.
State police charged Mayer, of 64 Lenox St., Uniontown, with breaking into Wendy Sue Baker’s Varndell Street home on Jan. 19. Baker reportedly came home around 10:30 p.m. while he was inside and saw him with a knife.
She ran out, and her brother came back and removed Mayer from the home.
Police arrested Mayer about 15 minutes later.
In addition to burglary, Mayer was also acquitted of criminal trespass and defiant trespass.
Judge Steve P. Leskinen indicated that if nothing else was holding Mayer, he would be released from Fayette County Prison, where he is currently being held.
Trial begins
The trial for Samuel B. Lilley Jr., 24, of Normalville began Wednesday in Fayette County Court.
Lilley, of Buttermilk Hollow Road, is charged with simple assault, harassment and public drunkenness for allegedly beating up William Kuhn at Gibson Terrace in Connellsville last Sept. 3.
During the altercation, police charge that Lilley broke Kuhn’s nose and damaged his cellular telephone when he tried to use it to call 911.
The fight, according to court records, started at 12:36 a.m., and was over a woman.
The trial is being held before Judge Ralph C. Warman.
Judge hears testimony
Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen began hearing testimony Wednesday in a drug case lodged against Thomas Cominsky of Connellsville.
Cominsky, 37, of 1221 Sycamore St., is charged with possession of 1.14 grams of Oxycontin, possession of drug paraphernalia and receiving stolen property.
He allegedly had the prescription pill, paraphernalia and blank, stolen prescription forms in a Bible in his home when Connellsville police Cpl. Ronald Haggerty Jr. searched there on March 8, 2001.
Police allege that, although Cominsky had a prescription for 20 mg Oxycontin pills, he had 40 and 80 mg pills that were illegally obtained in his home.
Cominsky’s defense attorney, Brent E. Peck, told jurors that police harassed him, searching his home 26 times.
The items were in his home, said Peck, because a man stayed there the night before police searched and left them there.