Four Saylorsburg men are now charged for their alleged actions during he January, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. 75-year-old retired race driver Tighe Scott and his 48-year-old son Jarrett both face numerous felony and misdemeanor charges. Also accused are 56-year-old Scott Slater Sr. and his son, 26-year-old Scott Slater Jr. Investigators say the younger Slater threw a flagpole and hit a law enforcement officer. The older Slater allegedly tried to push through police shields while holding a golf club. Tighe Scott allegedly struck riot shields and tried to rip one out of an officer's hands. Jarrett Scott is being charged with resisting police and failing to leaving the area when ordered to do so. More than 100 Pennsylvania residents have been charged with participating in the U.S. Capitol riot.
There's an arrest in the October 2023 double murder in the woods of New Philadelphia, Schuylkill County. 19-year-old Lamour Branch is accused of shooting 18-year-old Hunter Mock to death. Kate Mock is Hunter's mother and says she cannot understand why her son died. "Those boys went out there as loyal, good-hearted, fun-loving people going out to have a good time with supposed friends," Mock says. Investigators say Branch intended to kill a female roommate of Mock, and just possibly Mock as well. Instead, the female, who was Mock's roommate, didn't go out with the group of friends that October night and was not harmed. However, Mock was shot to death and 16-year-old Angelito Caraballo was then stabbed to death because he witnessed Mock's killing. Branch has been in jail since December when his bail was revoked for violating bail conditions bail by failing to meet with his probation officer and failing to show for a hearing in a burglary case.
A Navy veteran is being sentenced after he had a Lehigh Valley teen send him sexual videos and pictures. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Patrick Otwell from Alabama had a 13-year-old Upper Saucon Township girl send him sexual videos and pictures of herself between November of 2022 and January of 2023. Otwell has been sentenced to more than 22-years in prison after pleading guilty to several child pornography charges.
Governor Josh Shapiro has signed Senate Bill 37, Paul Miller's Law, into law prohibiting the use of hand-held devices while driving. The law is named after 21-year-old Paul Miller, who was killed when a distracted tractor-trailer driver plowed into his car while driving on Route 33 near East Stroudsburg back in 2010. Eileen Miller says for the past 14 years, she's been fighting to keep a promise she made to her dead son that day. "I whispered in the ear of my son at the morgue even though I couldn't identify. I didn't even know it was him because he was that bad. But I whispered in his ear that when I found out what had caused that crash, and I would find out, that I would fight for change," Miller says. The new law bans the use of hand-held cell phones on the roadway and makes it a primary offense, meaning you can get pulled over for that specific reason.
New Jersey's former attorney general is expected to testify today in Senator Bob Menendez' federal corruption trial in New York. Gurbir Grewal is expected to confirm that Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, called and met with him several times in 2019 trying to convince him to pull the plug on an insurance fraud investigation, which he ended up not doing. It involved insurance broker Jose Uribe's friends. Prosecutors are trying to establish that Menendez agreed to use his influence after Uribe hosted a 2018 fundraiser for him and bought his wife Nadine a Mercedes when she totaled her car.