Court briefs
Trial begins The criminal trial for a 49-year-old Merrittstown man accused of breaking down the door to a home and stealing $60 began Monday in Fayette County Court.
Donald E. McFadden, of 176 Pennsylvania Ave., allegedly kicked in the front door of John Berdar’s 9 Salem Avenue, Menallen Township, home last April 17 after Berdar refused to cash a check for Tina Terry.
State police said Terry, McFadden and Charles Byrd drove to Berdar’s house from New Salem, hoping to cash a $50 check. When Berdar refused Terry’s request, police allege that McFadden told Terry and Byrd to wait in the car while he went to get the money. He allegedly kicked in Berdar’s door, pushed him over a table and then took $60 from a cash box and fled.
Court records indicate that Terry told police McFadden ordered Byrd to leave the scene and told the two of them that he was not with them, if anyone asked. McFadden, said police, used the money he took from Berdar to buy crack.
He is charged with robbery, burglary, simple assault, theft and receiving stolen property.
McFadden’s trial will pick up this morning before Judge John F. Wagner Jr.
First Trial Assistant District Attorney Joseph M. George Jr. is prosecuting the case. Attorney Dianne Zerega is representing McFadden.
Man faces charges
A Brownsville man is on trial for allegedly helping to steal 64 cartons of cigarettes from a store in the borough.
Harry King Sr., 58, of 106 Bank Str., allegedly used a sledgehammer to break a window and enter Bates’ Shirt Shack in Brownsville last May 22. He and an alleged accomplice reportedly took and then sold the $2,048 in cigarettes, in part, through his son, John King, who is slated to testify against him.
The younger King is also charged with selling the stolen cigarettes, said deputy prosecutor Gene Grimm, but because he is cooperating, he will receive a lesser sentence.
Harry King, represented by Assistant Public Defender Mary Campbell Spegar, is charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy to commit burglary and criminal trespass.
His trial will resume this morning before Fayette County Judge Gerald R. Solomon.