The Sanatoga Post

NORRISTOWN PA – A Lower Pottsgrove man accused of abusing his 17-week-old baby boy, who suffered fractures to his skull, ribs, leg, forearms and shoulder, will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he’s competent to proceed to trial, The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper reported Wednesday (Feb. 22, 2012).

Jacob Govinda Zlomek, 25, most recently of the 3000 block of East High Street, will be examined by doctors at Montgomery County Emergency Services on Feb. 28, according to an order issued by county Judge Thomas C. Branca.

The judge said psychiatrists must “address the issue of whether or not the defendant is competent to participate in the legal proceedings presently pending against defendant and if said defendant is criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the offense and if said defendant is capable of criminal intent.”

• Read a story by reporter Carl Hessler, titled “Lower Pottsgrove alleged child abuser to get evaluation” and published Wednesday by The Mercury, here.

Editor’s Note: Jacob Zlomek is the son, and the infant cited is the grandson, of Post Managing Editor Joe Zlomek and his wife, Debbie. In an attempt to ensure objectivity and avoid a perception of conflicts of interest, Zlomek has decided against reporting or writing on this story himself. Instead The Post will refer readers, as it has above, to stories produced by other media outlets.

POTTSTOWN PA – Pennsylvania’s teen driver law, which in part requires all occupants age 18 or younger of any vehicle to wear a seat belt, took effect late last December (2011). Now Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Police want to ensure it takes hold in the minds of teens themselves.

18 or younger? Buckle up, or face the music

Traffic Safety Ofc. Robert Diesinger and School Resource Ofc. Wil James got to work Tuesday (Feb. 14, 2012) at Pottsgrove High School on Kauffman Road to introduce the law and its ramifications to students there. They’re scheduled to conduct several seminars on the subject, reaching every grade level, through March 4.

The police department will make sure the consequences of non-compliance are felt, too.

In a little less than two weeks – beginning Feb. 28 and continuing through March 2 – department patrols will concentrate on enforcing the law along Kauffman Road, Buchert Road, North Charlotte Street, and other roadways within the townships. Violators should be prepared to be stopped, questioned, reminded of the law, and possibly be issued warnings or citations.

“This new law is a primary violation, and subjects can be stopped solely for not wearing a seat belt,” Diesinger said.

Parents and other adult drivers should pay attention, too. They are responsible for the safety of those in their vehicles, and can be cited if passengers who by law must wear seat belts are found without them.

The intent, of course, is to raise awareness of the law now on the books. Lower Pottsgrove’s effort is being funded by a $1,000 “teen-driver safety enforcement mobilization” grant, and the township was chosen as a recipient specifically because of its educational outreach, Diesinger noted.

Parents and teens who have questions about the law, or the department program, can call Diesinger for more information at 610-326-1508.

Be safe and smart, Lower Pottsgrove Police request. Make sure your car doors are locked.

SANATOGA PA – An investigation is continuing by Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Police into alleged thefts of materials from unlocked vehicles in the area of Pebble Beach Lane, Pinehurst Drive, Country Drive and Sunnyside Avenue, according to police Sgt. Timothy Walters.

Early last week (Feb. 6, 2012; Monday), Walters stopped four Pottstown residents – an adult male and three juveniles ranging in age from 16 to 18 – after he found them “acting suspiciously” near the intersection of Country and Sunnyside. Walters subsequently discovered “various items of property” that police said they believe were abandoned by the suspects when they saw Walters’ patrol car approach.

Charges against the subjects are pending further investigation, Walters reported. To that end, the Lower Pottsgrove department is asking for public help. Anyone with information regarding the alleged thefts, or anyone who may have determined items in their cars were recently missing, are being asked to call police at 610-326-1508. Missing property may include cameras, cell phones, loose change, and other items, Walters said.

Police also hope to locate owners of the property already recovered.

Acting Police Chief Michael Foltz and Ofc. Scott Weidenhammer met during January with a group of Pebble Beach Lane residents to discuss their concerns regarding the perception of rising crime in the area. Increased street lighting, the potential placement of certain fences, and the creation of a volunteer Neighborhood Watch group for the area are among possible solutions still being discussed, Foltz told the Board of Commissioners during their meeting last Monday.

Foltz also issued a list of what he called “immediate measures” that would help deter he threat of thefts in all areas of the township:

• Keep all vehicles and homes locked at all times;
• Do not leave valuables inside cars where potential thieves can see them;
• Record serial numbers along with the make and model of all valuables;
• Place identifying marks – but not Social Security numbers – on all valuables. The police department has an engraving tool it can loan for such purposes, Foltz said;
• Photograph all valuables, particularly jewelry, coins and precious metals;
• Keep receipts for all valuables to provide proof of ownership to insurers;
• Install outdoor porch, post, and flood lights on timers or motion sensors to light the areas around a home;
• When leaving home, ell neighbors of your plans, and have them keep watch there;
• Immediately report any suspicious activity to police; and
• Consider investing in security or surveillance systems for a home, and identify their use with signage.

Buckle up. It keeps you safe, and also keeps your out of legal trouble

SANATOGA PA – Teenage drivers and vehicle passengers at Pottsgrove High School who fail to buckle up and wear seat belts are going to get a good talking to – and later may even be ticketed – by officers of the Lower Pottsgrove Police Department, Acting Chief Michael Foltz told the township Board of Commissioners.

The department has won a $1,000 grant from the “Buckle-Up PA” program of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Foltz said Monday (Feb. 6, 2012), and it intends to put that money to use beginning Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. That’s when School Resource Officer Wil James, and Traffic Safety Officer Robert Diesinger will make a “teen seat belt mobilization” presentation at the high school. A second show will follow on March 4.

PennDOT has placed increasing importance on seat belt awareness and enforcement within the teen population, Foltz explained, in part because teens tend to pay less attention to the safety benefits of being belted in. They pay a high price for that inattention, too, in injuries and fatalities. Alerting them to the dangers, and the remedy, is the program’s first task.

It’s not the only one though.

Lower Pottsgrove expects to throw enforcement muscle behind its cautionary words. The program’s “second wave will be an enforcement detail,” Foltz told board members. Warnings, tickets, fines, and maybe worst, notifying parents, are among the tools the department might use to force teen drivers and riders that the law requires their safety and compliance.

PennDOT’s funds will cover the cost of the materials for the presentations, and any overtime incurred by officers involved in meeting the program’s goals, Foltz noted.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 6 meeting):

• Buckle Up, Teens, Or Face Lower Pottsgrove’s Police
• Speed Limit, Stop Signs Topics Of Park Road Hearings
• Talk About Really Dirty Crime: Township Trash Thefts
• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

SANATOGA PA – Thar’s gold in them thar black plastic bags. And refuse cans. And recycling bins too. In Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, some folks’ trash truly is becoming what others treasure.

Someone, so far unidentified, seems to be stealing garbage from the curbs of local homes, Acting Police Chief Michael Foltz acknowledged Monday (Feb. 6, 2012). No, it’s not a big problem, Foltz said, at least not yet. But it is bothersome enough that police patrols assigned to night shift duty are being asked to stay alert and try to, um, bag the perpetrators.

Recyclers are paying higher prices to buy scrap metal, Foltz told the township Board of Commissioners, and that drives these nuisance thefts. Bandits apparently swipe the bags, sift through the rubbish for anything salvageable or usable (think identity theft, too), then toss the remains in any nearby dumpster.

Which is how former commissioner and East High Street resident Tom Troutman learned he had been a victim.

A dumpster owner who pays private contractors to haul his garbage away found Troutman’s name on magazines within his trash, and called him to demand an explanation. Troutman was at first embarrassed, then angered, and then humored, he told commissioners. “It sounds silly, and it’s almost laughable,” Troutman conceded, “but it’s also frustrating.”

The problem is worse, Commissioner Stephen Klotz noted, when bad guys go mining through bins containing materials to be recycled. They’re taking money out of the recycler’s pockets, Klotz said, “and besides that the neighborhood ends up looking like the trash men were there at midnight.”

And there, Foltz drew a legal distinction: trash at the curb is discarded and therefore might be considered publicly available, he said; recyclables are not. Even so, if the trash thieves are caught there are offenses aplenty with which they can be charged and, like a wad of used chewing gum, police probably can make them stick.

Foltz’s bigger worry, he said, is the potential for identity theft. It happens to millions of Americans each year, and can result in severe financial distress and months of angst as victims try to sort out how and where someone else fraudulently used their identity information.

The solution to that problem is simple, Foltz added: shred all documents containing personally valuable information before disposing of them. Then there’s one less thing for trash thieves to profit from, he said.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 6 meeting):

• Talk About Really Dirty Crime: Township Trash Thefts
• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

Photo from Google Images

The CVS Pharmacy on East High Street

SANATOGA PA – A suspect charged with committing a daring daylight robbery of the CVS Pharmacy on East High Street in Sanatoga village was arraigned Tuesday (Jan. 31, 2012) in magisterial district court in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, and faces a preliminary hearing there on Feb. 7 at 2 p.m., The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper reported.

Lower Pottsgrove police charged Shivi Brian Mohnani Neil, 21, of 58 N. Savanna Dr., East Coventry, with felony robbery and related offenses in connection with a Jan. 3 robbery at CVS, during which he allegedly used a note to demand narcotics from pharmacists working there, The Mercury said. The incident occurred during workday hours as the store was busy with customers, police said earlier.

The note claimed a weapon was involved, according to The Mercury, which cited the arrest affidavit filed by township Detective Joseph Campbell.

Neil also is separately charged with somewhat similar robberies that occurred during the same period in neighboring Berks County. Fingerprint evidence obtained in those investigations led Lower Pottsgrove police to consider Neil a suspect in the Sanatoga incident, The Mercury said.

• Read a story by reporter Brandie Kessler, titled “PSU student charged with robbing Lower Pottsgrove CVS pharmacy” and published Tuesday by The Mercury, here.

Other coverage:

• More charges filed against student accused of robbing pharmacies (WFMZ-TV)

SANATOGA PA – A 20-year-old Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township man was placed in jail for probation violation following his arrest last week on charges related to an alleged retail theft at the Sanatoga Thriftway supermarket, township police Ofc. Robert Diesinger reported Tuesday (Jan. 31, 2012).

Detained by Montgomery County Adult Probation, and later transported and housed at the county Correctional Facility, was township resident Rasheen Jones, Diesinger said.

Jones and a juvenile were accused Jan. 22 (Sunday) at about 5:11 p.m. of taking two packages of luncheon meat, valued at $7.14, from the store without paying for them, according to Diesinger’s report. Both were arrested following his investigation; Jones, on charges of misdemeanor retail theft and corruption of minors; the juvenile for summary retail theft.

The juvenile, whose name was not revealed due to his or her young age, was later released to a parent.

Appearances on the charges were scheduled in magisterial district court.

SANATOGA PA – Recommended changes to rules and regulations of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s Civil Service Commission have been delayed for consideration by the township Board of Commissioners until early February, giving its members more time to study what would be altered.

The proposed changes primarily affect candidates for positions in the police department, and were suggested during the board’s Jan. 19 meeting by Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway. They are based on recommendations made by now-former police Chief Michael Shade and current Interim Chief Michael Foltz, and coincide in part with other changes at the state level, Holloway said.

Although the changes are lengthy, Holloway noted, most affect the process by which the Civil Service Commission tests and approves prospective police job seekers. They delay in acting on them was requested by Commissioner Stephen Klotz, who wanted more time to read through the proposal. Other commissioners agreed.

The changes would:

• Require candidates for police officer positions to apply for and pass the officer certification course of the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission by the time they are appointed. The rules currently state candidates need only have applied to take the course. Demanding course completion before appointment “raises the bar” in the township for hiring more qualified officers, Holloway said.

• Revise time references under which disciplined officers might be considered for promotion.

• Change the circumstances under which an officer could be promoted to the rank of sergeant. The rules currently demand sergeant candidates must first serve as corporals; Lower Pottsgrove’s department has never had a corporal, according to Holloway. In the future, if approved, prospective sergeants could include patrol officers with 5 or more continuous years of service.

• Give the Civil Service Commission discretion in choosing physical agility tests to be administered to candidates. Testing changes made available from health and medical fields occur far faster than before, Holloway said. Rather than continually update rules to keep abreast of latest developments, he added, commissioners would have authority to make the most current or appropriate selections.

• Postpone undertaking a background investigation of patrol officer candidates until after they are certified by the commission as qualified to fill a vacancy. The rules currently require background checks of all candidates, certified or not. That’s expensive and time-consuming, and is rarely practiced by other commissions. The rule change would simply reflect current practice, he said.

Other, less significant revisions also are being proposed, Holloway said. The changes will be scheduled for approval during the board’s Feb. 6 (2012; Monday) meeting.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 19 meeing):

• Township Delays Civil Service Rules, Regs Changes
• December Warrants Detail Lower Pottsgrove Spending
• Board Appointments Prompt Questions, Angry Words
• Commissioners Welcome Lower Frederick To CMERT
• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks

SANATOGA PA – A Norristown man was arrested last week by Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township police on a charge of retail theft.

Cited was Daniel Darden, 54, of the 300 block of Logan Street, Norristown PA, following an incident Jan. 23 (2012; Monday) at about 9:15 p.m. in Redner’s Warehouse Market, 1300 N. Charlotte St., in the township.

A loss prevention employee of Redner’s had detained Darden, according to Ofc. Christopher DiPiano, after the employee allegedly “witnessed Darden place two packages of steak and one package of bologna into his coat and walk out of the store without paying for them.” Darden was later released.

SANATOGA PA – Looking ahead to the year-end (Dec. 31, 2012) expiration of its labor agreement with rank-and-file police department officers, the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners on Thursday (Jan. 19) authorized President Jonathan Spadt and its police committee to open contract negotiations with the law enforcers’ bargaining unit.

Given the still-struggling economy, and the township’s need again this year to draw on financial reserves to balance its budget, “the issues involved are a little more challenging,” Spadt warned. “It would be good to start the process early,” he said.

“I think the earlier the better,” Commissioner Stephen Klotz echoed.

The board authorization directs Manager Rodney Hawthorne to send a letter to the Fraternal Order of Police, requesting negotiations be scheduled.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 19 meeing):

• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks

Photo from Google Images