STATE
MCKEES ROCKS — Professional wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle has been cleared of charges of violating a protection from abuse order and possession of human growth hormone.
Angle was arrested last month in suburban Pittsburgh. His girlfriend, Trenesha Biggers, had obtained a protection order after the two had fought.
District Judge Carla Swearingen also dismissed charges Tuesday against Angle of driving with a suspended license and drug possession related to the hormone.
ERIE — A woman accused of masterminding a 2003 bank robbery that ended when a pizza deliveryman was killed by a bomb locked onto his neck wants a new attorney.Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who's now 60, last week was found mentally competent to stand trial by U.S. District Judge Sean McLauglin of Erie. Now McLaughlin has set a hearing for Thursday on her request to replace federal public defender Thomas Patton.
SCRANTON — Former Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering charges at their arraignment Tuesday in Scranton. They are accused of taking $2.8 million in kickbacks to place juvenile defendants in private youth detention centers.The ex-judges had agreed to plead guilty to fraud and tax evasion in return for a sentence of 87 months in prison, far below federal guidelines. But a federal judge rejected the deal last month, saying the pair had not accepted responsibility. Ciavarella and Conahan then switched their pleas to not guilty.
