Suspect nabbed in flight attempt
Two days before his 40th birthday, a former Uniontown man who allegedly violated his parole with positive tests for marijuana and pain medication was picked up at Pittsburgh International Airport, ready to leave on a plane for Jamaica with his family.
Michael Raven Hickenbottom was picked up Tuesday morning after Homeland Security flagged him as having an active bench warrant for his arrest. However, that bench warrant – issued for failure to appear for the parole violations last month – was lifted Monday after Hickenbottom turned himself in and appeared before Judge Steve P. Leskinen with his attorney, James T. Davis.
The lifted warrant, however, was not reflected when Hickenbottom tried to leave the country with his family, according to court personnel.
When it became apparent that Hickenbottom was trying to fly to Jamaica, however, Leskinen issued a bench warrant because leaving the country is a violation of his probation.
He was captured by state constable Mark Pasquale at the airport shortly before his plane was set to depart at 7:30 a.m.
About two hours later, Leskinen issued a formal detainer for Hickenbottom and remanded him to Fayette County Prison to await a probation revocation hearing.
Hickenbottom, who now lives in Greensburgh, is on parole on a 2006 drug case where he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver and possession of marijuana. He was initially sentenced to four years of probation, but violated that. Leskinen subsequently sentenced him to 11 ½ to 23 months behind bars, and 25 months of probation in June 2010.
He was still on probation in that case when probation officers alleged last month he violated the terms by smoking pot. According to court papers, Hickenbottom admitted to using marijuana and taking one of his wife’s pain pills.
Hickenbottom’s son, Michael Ellerbe, was 12 when he was shot while fleeing from police in the East End section of Uniontown. He sued police and initially won a $28 million verdict. After the appeal was filed, the case was settled for $12.5 million.
See HeraldStandard.com for additional details as they become available and read a full account of Hickenbottom’s arrest in tomorrow’s newspaper.