POLICE: Weekly Police Blotter

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT:
Arzie Hall, 20, of Ellwood City is charged with Aggravated Assault by Vehicle after an incident on March 26th. According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 7:35 p.m., police were dispatched to Beaver Avenue for a motor vehicle accident. When police spoke to Hall and his passenger, they were told an argument had occurred and that Hall, the driver of the vehicle, looked away from the road and had hit a nearby telephone pole. The passenger was taken to a nearby hospital and later, after the passenger returned home from hospital, the victims mother relayed that the wreck happened purposefully the complaint relates. According to the passenger, Hall had made a comment during the argument about wrecking the vehicle, which the passenger replied with “Do it…I [f*****g] dare you.” Soon after, Woods had ran the vehicle into the telephone pole. Officers interviewed Hall who denied the allegations until police provided text proof from Hall and the victims text messages.

BURGLARY:
Roger Karnes, 62, of Lyndora is charged with Burglary after an incident on April 10th. According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 7:50 p.m., The burglary victim related to police that he witnessed Karnes with his vehicle backed up to a washer, dryer, and dolly was located. The victim also mentioned items from multiple storage units were also take. Karnes was a former employee of victim and knew the access code to the property the complaint relates. Video evidence was provided from the local scrap yard of Karnes selling the stolen items. The value of all items came to the total of $3,500.00.

BURGLARY:
Markus Deutsch, 25, of Austintown, is charged with Burglary after an incident on May 13th. According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 5:45 p.m., the burglary victim told police that his truck had been stolen. Deutsch then, without permission from the victim or the co-owners of the truck, sold it for $1,200.

POSSESSION:
Jakob Kerr, 28, of Slippery Rock is charged with Possession of Controlled Substances after an incident on May 15th.  According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 3:09 p.m., police were dispatched to an apartment on Harlansburg Road and made contact with Kerr. Kerr was arrested on two warrants and was searched. Kerr had to sit during the search due to a leg injury he obtained after a motorcycle crash two weeks prior causing police to miss two pills in Kerrs coin pocket the complaint relates. After being transferred to the police department, Kerr was searched again and the pills were confiscated.

POSSESSION:
Michael Pounds, 35, of Ellwood City is charged with Possession of a Firearm after an incident on May 16th. According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 3:33 p.m., police responded to a report of a suicidal male armed with a gun. The complainant related that Pounds, her boyfriend, was outside of her home with an AR-Style rifle and had actively been shooting at the ground. The complainant also stated she had received several Facetime calls from Pounds which depieced him in physical possession of the rifle while making homicidal and suicidal statements the complaint relates. At approximately 4:49 p.m. Pounds approached police and was verbally combative refused to listen to officers commands. Officers were forced to tase Pounds and he was arrested and taken into custody without further incident. After approval of a search warrant, the search revealed several firearms, ammunitions, and magazines in and about the residence.

DUI:
Steven Kingston, 45, of Ellwood City, is charged with DUI after an incident on May 20th. According to a criminal complaint, and at approximately 5:18 p.m., officers stopped Kingston to conduct a traffic stop due to his driver side rear door hanging open, and a pallet in the rear of the van that was not secured with the rear hatch open. Kingston was found to be driving with a suspended license and was under the influence. Officers asked Kingston to submit to a Standard Field Sobriety Test for which he failed and Kingston was placed under arrest for DUI.

USE OF TOXIC PESTICIDES:
Two Western Pennsylvania men were sentenced on May 29, 2024, for their use of a toxic, banned pesticide to kill migratory birds, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced this week.

Robert Yost, 52, of New Galilee, is sentenced to a year of probation, a $21,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service. Jacob Reese, 27, an employee of Yost and resident of Enon Valley, is sentences to a year of probation, a $5,500 fine, and 50 hours of community service. Yost and Reese were found guilty in January 2024 following their October 2022 bench trial. The evidence presented at trial established that, in June 2020, Yost—as operator of Yost Farms in Beaver County, Pennsylvania—and his employee Reese conspired to kill migratory birds present on leased farmland operated by Yost Farms using carbofuran, a registered restricted-use pesticide. The Environmental Protection Agency concluded no later than 2009 that the risks for all uses of carbofuran were unacceptable and that all products containing carbofuran generally caused unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment. As part of the conspiracy, Yost directed Reese to spread whole kernel corn coated in carbofuran in and around a leased field used for soybean cultivation where children were regularly present. The tainted corn attracted protected migratory birds that were killed within a short distance of where they ingested the corn.

Yost and Reese thereafter took steps to conceal their efforts to poison and kill the migratory birds, including destroying the feed bag containing the carbofuran-laced whole corn kernel. When confronted by officials from the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Reese and Yost also lied about their use of poisoned corn to kill the birds. In total, Yost and Reese were responsible for killing approximately 17 Canada geese, 10 red-winged blackbirds, and one mallard duck.

Yost and Reese were each convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act for their use of carbofuran, and one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Court indicated at sentencing that the defendants’ required community service should be focused on wildlife conservation or farm safety.

In imposing the sentences, Judge Hardy emphasized that the defendants’ crimes were serious, created a risk to the environment, and harmed the public’s trust in the source of their food. The Court also highlighted the defendants’ lack of remorse and noted that imposing a term of community service would serve to redeem the public’s trust in safe and ethical farming.