Ex-trooper defends his role in Whethers probe
In answering Mr. McGarvey’s recent letter-to-the-editor, it is important to understand that major investigations, like the Ronald Whethers’ case is not conducted in a bubble and many entities are involved.
The Region 5 Strike Force was based in Greensburg and had a multi-county responsibility. Locally, in response to the spike in violent crime that plagued Fayette County in the 1990’s, the state police and Uniontown City Police tasked their mid-night shifts with putting a stop to it. (This was when most of the incidents were occurring)
Sgt. John Arminas assigned myself, Joe D’Andrea, Jeff Zarella, Omar Shankle and trainee-troopers (who rotated in and out with myself and D’Andrea) to work with the city police officers, Earl Wright, Jim Campbell, Lawrence Curry, Ron Kozak and Melvin Edinfield to tackle the situation. I hope I have not forgotten anyone.
We worked with many local agencies including, the Uniontown State Police Crime Unit, The Troop B Vice Unit, especially Dave Nickle, the Fayette County Drug Task Force and some federal agencies to name a few. All of these agencies put effort into shutting down the Whethers gang.
The mid-night crews worked tirelessly making arrests and gathering intelligence, which went into numerous intelligence reports that were passed up through the chain of command. We were on scene for the Jimmy “Bo” Smith and Chuckie Hunter murders to name a few, and when we looked around, we didn’t see John McGarvey or his crew there. We responded to more assaults and shootings than I can remember and again we didn’t see John McGarvey or his crew there. It was often dangerous work, I remember one night when during a traffic stop, a subject tried to pull a sawed-off shotgun on D’Andrea, or the night that several subjects unloaded 31 rounds at Tony Cornetta when he responded to a call in Bierer Wood Acres (we were able to arrest all of them by the end of the next day), and I can remember people mobbing us in the projects and trying to help our prisoners escape, just to name a few incidents. But, within nine months the violent criminal incidents were not occurring on the midnight shift any more. Often people would call the station to see if we were working that night or not.
Through the joint efforts of everyone mentioned above, the Whethers gang was eventually dismantled. Unfortunately, we did not get the money men or the kingpins behind the operation, but then neither did the great John McGarvey and his crew, so I guess us local guys shouldn’t feel too badly about it (especially since according to McGarvey, we weren’t there).
In response to Ms. Baus’ letter-to-the-editor I did not mention the Whethers case to claim credit in my original letter, but to show how history will repeat itself. If we do not learn from the past, we are destined to repeat it. There was a lot of corruption around the Whethers gang, I don’t think anyone will deny that, but not among our midnight crew.
Many small fish were arrested, turned and released in order to get Whethers. That is unfortunately how these investigations often go. Many were not prosecuted based upon decisions made by people in authority above those of us who worked the streets back then. But I would not say that the Whethers case is a stain on law enforcement. We did our job and did the best we could, remember your law enforcement agents are a reflection of the society that supports it.
I could go on, but in closing I wish to say that in my original letter my intent was simply to remind those in law enforcement of history, so they may avoid the pitfalls that we suffered. And before the small minded, mean-spirited rush by Mr. McGarvey to sling mud at me, to say thank you to the law enforcement officers who worked the recent indictments and arrests. Good job!
James E. Baranowski is a resident of Chalk Hill.