June 30, 2022 4:06 am
GREENE COUNTY, Pa. — (WPXI) – A Greene County 911 dispatcher is facing charges after allegedly refusing to send an ambulance to a severely ill woman. According to a release from the Greene County district attorney’s office, Leon Price was charged with involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, official oppression and obstructing administration of law or other government function. The charges arose after the death of Diania Kronk. Kronk passed away in 2020, after her daughter, Kelly Titchenell, contacted Greene County 911 and requested an ambulance for her mother. The release said Kronk died within the next 24 hours. She was 56 years old. Investigation revealed that 911 services violated protocol and their own procedures by refusing to dispatch an ambulance to Kronk’s aid. The release said it is alleged that her death is a direct result of 911’s violation of the policies. “According to the investigation, she was denied medical services when all three ambulances were available for dispatch,” said District Attorney Dave Russo. Price was the operator who handled the call. According to a lawsuit filed last week, Price said sending an ambulance to Kronk was a “waste of resources.” The lawsuit said that Titchenell told Price her mother was jaundiced, incoherent and bleeding from the rectum, and that Titchenell had to watch her mother suffer a slow death because she was denied public emergency services. “The investigation is being expanded to 911 management to see if this was a result of a potential unwritten 911 management policy in Greene County. No one should be denied emergency services in Greene County or anywhere else. Everyone should have equal protections and access to medical treatment,” Russo said.
June 30, 2022 3:25 am
A Burgettstown man who shot his father and killed him during an argument pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Twenty-four-year-old Joseph Warrick aced a criminal homicide charge and others but had his charges reduced to one charge of voluntary manslaughter. Warrick was sentenced to 4-8 years in state prison followed by 12 months of reentry supervision. The plea deal comes nearly two years after the July 3, 2020 incident where Warrick shot his father Joseph Warrick Sr. during an argument over a missing vape pen.
June 30, 2022 2:09 am
A Claysville teenager who is accused of shooting water pellets out of a car will not face criminal charges. Maddix Ganster, 18 appeared for his preliminary hearing and faced several misdemeanor charges for his role in what charging documents called a TikTok Challenge. Ganster and a second juvenile were accused of shooting “Orbeez” liquid pellets from a car at the Burger King in Canton Township. Ganster was later accused of shooting two people at the Wild Things stadium. The case was settled and charges were decreased to a single summary charge of disorderly conduct. Ganster was ordered to pay a $300 fine.
June 29, 2022 5:47 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The first Black woman confirmed for the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is officially becoming a justice. Jackson will be sworn as the court’s 116th justice at midday Thursday, just as the man she is replacing, Justice Stephen Breyer, retires. Breyer says in a letter to President Joe Biden that his retirement will take effect at noon, after nearly 28 years on the nation’s highest court. Earlier in the day the court is expected to issue its final opinions in a momentous and rancorous term that included overturning Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of the right to an abortion.
June 29, 2022 5:45 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – A new poll shows an overwhelming and growing majority of Americans say the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction, including nearly 8 in 10 Democrats. The poll, by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, finds that deep pessimism about the economy continues to plague President Joe Biden. Eighty-five percent of U.S. adults polled say the country is on the wrong track. Seventy-nine percent describe the economy as poor. The findings suggest Biden faces fundamental challenges as he tries to motivate voters to cast ballots for Democrats in November’s midterm elections. The poll shows only 39% of Americans approve of Biden’s leadership overall, while 60% disapprove.
June 29, 2022 4:18 am
NEW YORK (AP) – R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for using his R&B superstardom to subject young fans to systematic sexual abuse. The singer and songwriter was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking last year at a trial that gave voice to accusers who had once wondered if their stories were ignored because they were Black women. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the sentence at a courthouse in Brooklyn. The sentence caps a slow-motion fall for Kelly, who is 55. He remained adored by legions of fans even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.
June 29, 2022 4:15 am
MADRID (AP) – NATO leaders are meeting in Madrid amid what Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls “the most serious security crisis we have faced since the Second World War.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered Europe’s peace and driven NATO to pour troops and weapons into eastern Europe on a scale not seen since the Cold War. The alliance is holding a summit to turn an urgent sense of purpose triggered by Russia’s invasion into action. The leaders also want to patch up any emerging cracks in their unity over money and mission. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the gathering by video link.
June 29, 2022 4:14 am
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – A Mexican immigration official says that in the chaotic minutes after dozens of migrants were found dead inside a tractor-trailer sweltering in the Texas heat, the driver tried to slip away by pretending to be one of the survivors. The driver and two other men from Mexico remained in custody Wednesday as the investigation continued into the tragedy that killed 53 people in the nation’s deadliest smuggling episode on the U.S.-Mexico border. The head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute says at least 27 of the victims were from Mexico, 14 were from Honduras, seven were from Guatemala and two were from El Salvador.
June 29, 2022 4:13 am
DENVER (AP) – Colorado Republicans have rejected two prominent election deniers in primaries Tuesday night. It’s a setback for the movement to install backers of former President Donald Trump’s election lies in positions with power over voting. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters lost the Republican primary for secretary of state to Pam Anderson, a former clerk in suburban Denver. Peters was indicted for her role in a break-in of her county’s election system. An ally, State Rep. Ron Hanks, lost his bid for the GOP Senate nomination. Hanks attended the Jan. 6 protests. He was beaten by businessman Joe O’Dea, a rare GOP backer of some abortion rights.
June 29, 2022 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The latest testimony about the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has Donald Trump rebuffing his own security’s warnings about armed protesters in the crowd gathering for a rally near the White House. A former White House aide also tells the House committee investigating the attack that Trump desperately attempted to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol. In her testimony Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson described an angry, defiant president who grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to allow him go to the Capitol. Trump has dismissed her as “a total phony.”
