State briefs
Donations stolen PITTSBURGH (AP) – A man took $5,000 in donations from a Roman Catholic order while two volunteers were counting the money, police said.
Members of The Little Sisters of the Poor spend Sundays gathering donations from parishioners and churches. Volunteers count the money on Monday mornings in the order’s administrative offices in the Brighton Heights section of Pittsburgh, said Sister Mary Vincent Mannion, an administrator for the order.
As two elderly volunteers last Monday worked, a man walked into the office, said “I’ll take that” and made off with the cash, Mannion said.
Fifty percent of the 132-year-old order’s income comes from donations, Mannion said.
“Anyone who steals from the poor certainly has a problem,” Mannion said.
Coroner charged
FORD CITY, Pa. (AP) – The Clarion County coroner was charged with driving drunk and speeding in what was his second run-in with police in just over a year, officials said.
Roland Burns, 36, was arrested Sunday night in Manor Township, Armstrong County, after police spotted Burns driving 81 mph in a 55-mph zone, state police in Kittanning said. Officials believed Burns was driving under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs, state police said.
Burns was arrested on Sept. 11, 2003, in Clarion Township after a state police trooper spotted him driving his motorcycle at 105 mph. The trooper accused Burns of fleeing from police.
The coroner pleaded guilty this summer to summary charges, agreed to pay more than $1,000 in fines and entered a probation program.
Burns did not immediately return a phone message The Associated Press left at his office Tuesday morning.
Arrest may continue
ERIE, Pa. (AP) – A man accused of founding an anti-government militia may remain under house arrest until his trial scheduled for February, a federal magistrate ruled.
Darrell Sivik Sr., 56, of West Mead Township, has been free on a recognizance bond since July, when he left prison to undergo coronary bypass surgery. He was released to the custody of his wife, Kathleen.
Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter on Monday ruled Sivik may remain under house arrest without electronic monitoring after she heard a federal probation officer’s testimony that Sivik has complied with all bond restrictions.
Sivik was arrested in March and charged with unlawfully transferring automatic machine guns and possessing unregistered machine guns. Sivik has operated a low-power FM radio station that broadcasts programs related to “new world order” conspiracy theories, authorities said.
His attorney has said he isn’t a threat to the government, despite his anti-government rhetoric.