False 911 call

False 911 call
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said a 9-year-old girl who called 911 a week ago to report a man with a gun rummaging through her home in the 300 block of Herr Street made up the story. Police initially believed the child, who said the man entered the house after her father left for work around 7:30 a.m. but, after repeated interviews, she admitted that she made up the whole thing. Police have closed the case and said the girl won't be charged for making a false report.
Fugitive jailed
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police in Philadelphia caught up with a woman sought by Hermitage police in a 1998 theft and forgery case. Dorothy R. Carter, 38, of Doylestown, Pa., has been a fugitive since June 1999, facing charges of access device fraud, theft and forgery, police said. She was stopped by Philadelphia police on an unrelated matter, and authorities there learned that Hermitage police had secured a warrant for her arrest. She was returned to Mercer County this week and arraigned before District Justice Henry Russo, who ordered her held in Mercer County Jail on $5,000 bond. The case involved the fraudulent use of another person's credit card to lease a BMW automobile, police said, putting the amount of the crime at $13,000.
Officer injured
SHARON, Pa. -- Police said Officer William Gregg suffered a broken finger in a struggle with a man arrested on a couple of outstanding warrants at 12:35 a.m. Thursday. Gregg spotted Julius D. Hopson, 31, of Emerson Avenue, Farrell, at Leslie Street and Baldwin Avenue and knew there were warrants for his arrest from Southwest Regional Police and the Mercer County courts. He arrested Hopson, but Hopson struggled, breaking Gregg's finger, and ran away. Gregg chased him for several blocks and caught him again. Police said Hopson pulled a gin bottle from his pocket and tossed it as he ran, resulting in charges of littering and violating the open-container ordinance. He was also charged with resisting arrest and escape.
Sebring school board
SEBRING -- With the transfer of all pupils out of F.A. Sebring Middle School in April, Sebring Board of Education had to eliminate a custodial position. Board members voted to lay off David Yaggi, the sole daytime custodian at F.A. Sebring. A district spokeswoman said Yaggi, who has been with the district for 12 years, won't be out of work. He will continue to work within the district as a custodian. The Sebring school board accepted the resignations of Kenneth Croyle and Jeanne Martinelli, who will retire at the end of the school year. Croyle has taught art for 30 years at the junior high and high school levels, and Martinelli, a 30-year veteran of the district, taught fourth grade. The board also gave the eighth-grade class permission to take a trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto, Canada, May 8-10 and extended the supplemental contract for high school cheerleading adviser Nicole Herman.
Robbed at ATM
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A man was robbed at gunpoint after taking money out of an automated teller machine on Butler Avenue. The man told police a woman walked by as he was using the machine at 10:48 p.m. Thursday and asked if he could light her cigarette. She then demanded money, pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon. The woman took his wallet, three credit cards and about $30 in cash. She is described as a short, black woman wearing a dark-colored sweat suit.
More charges added
FARRELL, Pa. -- Police said a Federal Street man picked up on a parole detainer Thursday is facing some more serious charges. Kenneth Rutlin, 31, had 19 rocks of suspected crack cocaine and a digital scale in his possession when state parole and probation agents caught up with him in the 1100 block of Beechwood Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Police said he was also carrying $1,970 in cash. He tried to fight with the agents and Southwest Regional Police who assisted in the arrest and was charged with resisting arrest and possession of crack cocaine with intent to deliver. He was lodged in Mercer County Jail on the parole detainer and in lieu of $15,000 bond on the drug and resisting arrest charges.