Fraud defendant reconsiders pleaA defense attorney said an accountant charged with helping the founder of Pennsylvania’s largest online charter school avoid income taxes on more than $8 million siphoned from the school has reconsidered a guilty plea.Attorney Stan Levenson previously said that Neil Prence would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit tax fraud on Monday. But Prence’s appearance before a federal judge was postponed until Sept. 28 because Levenson said Prence “needs additional time to consider” the guilty plea.He’s accused of conspiring with Nicholas Trombetta who pleaded guilty to the fraud last month involving The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. Trombetta will be sentenced Dec. 20.Trombetta allegedly used the money to buy a Florida condominium, houses for his mother and girlfriend but socked most of it away for retirement.

Former hospice head gets 15 months,/b>A woman who formerly headed a suburban Pittsburgh hospice will spend 15 months in federal prison for using patients who weren’t terminally ill to collect millions of dollars in false Medicare and Medicaid claims.Former Horizons Hospice chief operating officer Mary Ann Stewart pleaded guilty in June. She apologized Monday and said she got into the business after her parents’ prolonged deaths.But a federal judge noted she kept up the fraud even after she was caught, and had subordinates help her in the scheme. She earned more than $300,000 annually at the time.The 49-year-old Carrolltown woman must also spend two years on probation and repay $175,000.Shooting suspect’s bail is revokedA judge has revoked the bail of a teenager accused of shooting another teen at a Pittsburgh transit stop last week.The 16-year-old youth is charged in Allegheny County with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangering and firearms crimes in the Sept. 13 shooting of a 17-year-old with a .22-caliber pistol at a busy station.At the defendant’s initial court appearance, bond was set at $10,000. But prosecutors on Monday called the youth a danger, citing a juvenile record and alleging that he was part of two feuding groups.