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A man believed to be behind an unregulated online marketplace commonly dubbed "eBay for drugs," is heading to federal court and the case has local ties.
Over a year ago, the feds took down the website. Now, they're going after the man they believe is the site's mastermind.
This week, the trial for Ross Ulbricht, the man the U.S. government accuses of running underground forum Silk Road, will begin in federal court in Manhattan.
The story reads like a Hollywood drama: Over a year ago, authorities arrested 30-year-old Ulbricht in the San Francisco public library.
He is accused of being the kingpin behind the underground marketplace that allowed users to buy and sell everything from drugs to weapons to fake passports.
Ulbricht faces a range of charges -- from drug trafficking and money laundering to hacking and criminal enterprise. Before Silk Road was seized, it's estimated the site earned more than $80 million dollars in over two years.
The online forum launched in 2011. Users accessed Silk Road through software that enabled them to browse anonymously.
According to an FBI search warrant, the site's backup servers were located in Conshohocken, Montgomery County and were administrated by a server company with a Hilltown Township, Bucks County address.
The site transformed into a black market where people paid with bitcoin, a digital currency that proved difficult to trace. The site was shut down in 2013 when Ulbricht was arrested.
The owner of the server company was listed as a staff member at Lafayette College in Easton, Northampton County. The search warrant said he had not been charged with any crime and was been cooperating with the FBI.
Prosecutors say Ulbricht went by the name Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a character in the movie Princess Bride. They have photos of what they claim are nine of Ulbricht's fake IDs as well as journal logs and screenshots of log-in information.
During the trial, they will try to prove Ulbricht was the mastermind behind Silk Road.
At one point, Ulbricht faced even more serious charges. He was accused of soliciting six murders-for-hire as part of a plan to protect the site. Five of those charges have been dropped but one charge remains on the table in Maryland. While there is no evidence that any of the murders were carried out, Judge Katherine Forrest, who is overseeing the trial, ruled the evidence was admissible to use in Ulbricht's trial.
Ulbricht has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his defense questions how the government obtained access to Silk Road's server. Both friends and family say he's innocent.
A site devoted to Ulbricht's case describes him as an Eagle Scout -- and honest and trustworthy.
While there are several other sites that host illicit illegal activity on the web, Silk Road was the first to shed light on the underground and unregulated web.
It's uncharted territory, and Internet activists will be watching closely to see how the trial plays out.
A few residents in one Montgomery County community have to boil their water before using it Tuesday thanks to a water main break.
The advisory is for residents on the north side of the 500 block of East High Street between Warren and Washington streets in Pottstown.
Those who live on the south side of High Street do not need to boil their water.
The water main break took place in the 500 block of Washington early Tuesday.
A broken water main has prompted the issuance of a boil water advisory in part of Pottstown, Montgomery County.
People who live on the north side of the 500 block of East High Street, between Warren and Washington streets, are being told to boil their water until further notice.
Residents of the street's south side are unaffected by the break, officials said.
Police in northwestern Pennsylvania are searching for a man who stole a state police cruiser.
The Erie Times-News reported the cruiser was stolen Tuesday morning and found abandoned a short time later in southeast Millcreek Township.
It was not immediately clear how the man got access to the vehicle.
Erie police Chief Randy Bowers told the newspaper that officers are searching near the city's border with Harborcreek Township.
WSEE-TV reported schools in the area are on lockdown while the search continues.
Police in Easton have arrested two men in connection with a shooting last month in Easton that was drug related.
On December 22, investigators said 28-year-old Raymond Nichelson was shot and killed at 10th and Ferry streets, and the shooting was drug-related.
According to the Northampton County coroner, Nichelson was from New Jersey, but also stayed at a home in the 800 block of Ferry Street, two blocks from where he was shot. The victim died at Easton Hospital.
Tuesday morning, police took Lael Alleyne and Charles Martin into custody after serving arrest warrants.
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Watch for some icy patches on local roads this morning.
Today will be brisk and chilly with some sunshine.
Temperatures will fall into the 20s everywhere by midday along with breezy conditions.
Wind chills will be in the teens this afternoon.
LINK: HOUR BY HOUR FORECAST
Wednesday will also be brisk and chilly with partly sunny skies.
Highs will top out in the upper 20s during the afternoon.
Thursday will feature partly sunny skies and high temperatures in the lower 30s.
A Reading man and a teen are behind bars in Schuylkill County, accused of murdering a former Marine who was reported missing almost one year ago.
Oliver Trizarri, 21, of Reading, and a 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, were charged Sunday with criminal homicide, conspiracy and other offenses for allegedly killing 24-year-old Corey Samuels of Coaldale.
According to court documents, Trizarri told police that he and the teen defendant lured Samuels into rural Coaldale under the guise of going to smoke and drink on Jan. 20, 2014.
"[They] had it all planned out," said Tpr. David Beohm, Pennsylvania State Police.
Together, the two proceeded to attack Samuels by choking him, beating him and striking his head with a shovel, according to court documents.
Beohm told 69 News that the motive was revenge; Trizarri told investigators he and the teen suspect believed Samuels had sexually assaulted a female friend.
Samuels' father, Paul Samuels, however, said that this son would never do that. He believes the suspects are lying in order to receive a less severe punishment and hopes that justice will be served.
"I will get justice," he said. "I'm a firm believer in an eye for an eye."
The victim's father broke down while speaking of his son.
"My baby boy, my only child. I delivered him. I raised him."
Samuels' remains were discovered in early September by two people walking off East Miner Street in Coaldale.
Trizarri and the juvenile suspect were committed to the Schuylkill County Prison without bail. Both were arrested and arraigned before a district judge Sunday.
Schuylkill County District Attorney Christine Holman told 69 News that she is still deciding whether to seek the death penalty.
New band uniforms, a police officer working in Emmaus High School and two more teachers to reduce large classes in elementary schools are “initiatives” the administration of East Penn School District wants included in the budget for the next school year.
Dr. Michael Schilder, the district’s superintendent, proposed those three initiatives during an initial presentation of the 2015-16 budget that he and district business manager Debra Surdoval gave to the school board Monday night.
The state Department of Education will allow East Penn to increase property taxes by 2.2 percent without seeking exceptions in the next school year.
But the school district intends to request state exceptions because it anticipates the possibility of raising taxes more than 2.2 percent
District officials estimate they can seek exceptions to raise taxes as much as 5.2 percent, although it’s much too early in the process of developing a budget to predict the actual size of that increase.
Surdoval noted the district always has stayed well below the maximum it is allowed to raise taxes when it applies for exceptions from the education department.
Except for the band uniforms, school resource officer and two additional teachers, the superintendent defined it as a “maintenance only” budget: “We are simply trying to maintain what we have.”
Schilder stressed he does not want to eliminate programs or decrease staffing. “Our goal is to keep taxes as low as possible without cutting programs,” he said.
Band uniforms
The administration proposes including $50,000 in the 2015-16 budget to get new uniforms for the Emmaus High School Marching Band.
Schilder said the band’s uniforms are 11 years old.
“That is a lot of wear and tear; a lot of students who have exerted themselves in the marching band uniforms,” he said.
“As we replace athletic uniforms, we really should replace marching band uniforms as well.”
SRO
The superintendent said getting a school resource officer —SRO — in Emmaus High School is a very high priority.
He or she will be a police officer employed by the Emmaus police department but budgeted by the school district at $100,000 next year.
Rather than just “wandering the halls looking for evil-doers,” Schilder said the SRO also pro-actively will serve as a counselor and teacher “as it relates to law enforcement.”
He said the officer will be there for much more than simply to prevent violence — including drug prevention, substance abuse, sexual harassment and bullying.
“An SRO officer can have a tremendous impact on a school environment by being there for students and working hand-in-hand with the administration,” said Schilder.
Based on his own experiences with school resource officers, the superintendent said students will go to SROs to report things or ask for help when they will not go to the school’s principal or assistant principal.
He said many high schools in urban, suburban and rural school districts across the country are getting SROs.
He noted Allentown School District has four SROs, Parkland has two, and Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Salisbury each have one.
“I’ve been in contact with the superintendents of those districts and every one of them said now that they have SROs, they can’t imagine not having an SRO,” said Schilder. “That’s how ingrained and integral that position is in those high schools.”
Schilder feels strongly that Emmaus High needs an SRO —“not because of anything that’s happened at our high school, but just because of the nature of high schools and 2,800 students in any high school in this country, no matter what area.”
Teachers to reduce class sizes
The administration also proposes hiring two “floating” teachers for the next school year, at a cost of $160,000 for salary and benefits, to reduce elementary school classes that have more than 30 students.
This year, said Schilder, East Penn has seven elementary classes, all at the fifth grade level, with 30 or more students.
He told the school board there also are classes with more than 30 students in East Penn’s middle schools, but doesn’t think the district can afford to hire enough teachers to address that problem at both middle and elementary schools.
The superintendent explained he is not comfortable with middle school classes of more than 30 students, but is more uncomfortable with class sizes that large in the elementary schools.
Schilder later noted class sizes can be reduced only if a particular school building has additional classroom space.
Budget timetable
Although a final budget won’t be adopted by the school board until June, Schilder said the administration began working on it back in October.
He said the district has to propose a preliminary budget by Jan. 20 and make it available to the public.
The school board will vote on a proposed final budget on May 11, with a final vote for adoption on June 22.
Between now and June, promised the superintendent, there will be much discussion about “how to craft this budget” in public school board meetings.
He told the school board: “By no means is any of the information you see tonight etched in stone.”
The size of next year’s budget — “as it sits today, in very preliminary form” —will increase nearly 5 percent compared to this year’s budget.
At the moment, the proposed budget totals $136,898,291— over $6.38 million more than the current 2014-15 budget.
Schilder questioned whether that increase will be funded by a tax increase, use of the district’s budgetary reserves or through additional trimming of the budget with cuts.
“It’s probably going to be a combination of all three of those,” he said.
Board president Alan Earnshaw told his colleagues there would be no discussion or debate about the budget Monday night, including “the merits or demerits of the proposals” made by the superintendent.
Board member Waldemar Vinovskis called having a school resource officer in Emmaus High School “a great idea.”
But board member Ziad Munson said he is skeptical about the SRO, wants to learn more about the position from Schilder and looks forward to having a “robust discussion” on the subject.
Schilder said the high school’s administration has been recommending an SRO be budgeted for the last few years.
“It is their top priority as well as mine,” he said.
He said Emmaus police chief David Faust has invited the school district to participate in the interview process to hire an SRO.
Earnshaw added it’s not yet been determined if the position will be filled by a current member of the police department or a new employee.
Property taxes increased by 3.34 percent for the current school year in East Penn, but there was no tax increase in the 2013-14 school year.
Unknowns for the 2015-16 budget include whether state funding to the district will increase and when warehouses planned in Lower Macungie Township will be completed and begin generating additional tax revenue for the district.
Schilder said salaries are increasing by 3.6 percent in the next school year, because of contractual obligations, and benefits are increasing by nearly 12 percent, mostly because of escalating pension contributions.
Surdoval said contracted salaries will increase by 2.5 percent for teachers and administrative assistants in the next school year and by 3.4 percent for custodians.
A teenager was killed Monday night when the car she was riding in hit a patch of ice and slid off the road, police said.
The accident happened around 10:50 p.m. on Trumbauersville Road in Milford Township, Bucks County.
According to police, a car driven by 18-year-old Ryan Digiovanni of Collegeville was traveling east on Trumbauersville Road when he crested a hill and entered an ice-covered bridge.
The car hit the westbound wall of the bridge, left the shoulder of the road and hit a tree which caused the car to start to roll onto the passenger side, police said.
The car then hit a large tree with the passenger side door and roof area.
Digiovanni was not wearing a seatbelt, police said, and was thrown from the vehicle. He was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County.
There's no word on the extent of his injuries.
His passenger, 19-year-old Kiana Alvarenga of Quakertown, was wearing a seatbelt, but was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident is under investigation.
Lehigh Carbon Community College plans to relocate both its downtown Allentown and Carbon County satellite campuses.
College officials are seeking the blessings of the 13 sponsoring public school districts in Lehigh and Carbon counties to expedite its plan to acquire new properties.
The college is not asking those school districts to increase their financial contributions to buy replacement properties, only to give it pre-authorization to proceed.
LCCC got unanimous pre-approval Monday night from East Penn School Board in Lehigh County.
Other school districts also considered the issue during Monday meetings, but information about their votes could not be obtained late Monday night.
LCCC needs approval from two-thirds of the sponsoring districts to proceed with buying real estate.
According to Ann Thompson, who serves on LCCC’s board of trustees, Palmerton School Board gave the relocation plan pre-approval on Dec. 9, Allentown gave it on Dec. 18 and Lehighton did so on Dec 22.
A new Allentown location will replace LCCC’s Donley Center at 718 Hamilton St., which is almost directly across the street from the new PPL Center multi-purpose arena.
LCCC plans to move its Carbon County campus out of a wing of Jim Thorpe High School, where it moved from Nesquehoning last year.
The moves will expand LCCC’s operations in both locations.
LCCC hopes to remain in center-city Allentown, but wants a place that offers students parking.
They have to pay to park near the Donley Center and both the hours of paid parking and amount of payment have increased since the opening of PPL Center.
Thompson said the Donley Center is in a prime location, but has no parking. She also said that building is nearly 100 percent utilized.
As for the Jim Thorpe High School location, she said LCCC has done studies showing enrollment will increase if the college has its own free-standing building in Carbon County.
Thompson, who represents East Penn School District on LCCC’s board of trustees, made the pre-approval request to East Penn’s school board Monday. She is former president of East Penn’s board.
“We need this because of the timing issue,” explained Thompson.
She said one problem being faced by the college is that real estate in center-city Allentown “isn’t sitting on the market very long.”
Thompson gave an example: “We were interested in a property that would have suited the community college very well, in terms of the building itself and the parking.
“We made an offer on the building. The people selling the building said: ‘We don’t want to wait until you go through all the hoops that you have to go through with 13 school district to approve buying this building’.”
The college is seeking pre-authorizations to acquire properties so it can act quickly when alternative sites become available.
After new campus homes are found, LCCC will sell the Donley Center and leave the wing of Jim Thorpe High.
It intends to notify those 13 school districts within 10 days of entering into agreements to acquire new sites.
The pre-approvals from the school districts will expire at the end of this year.
Thompson indicated LCCC already has budgeted money in anticipation of relocating the Allentown and Carbon County campuses. She said the sale of the Donley Center, which LCCC owns, also will help pay those costs.
LCCC’s main campus is in Schnecksville in northern Lehigh County.
LCCC president Ann Bieber and Audrey Larvey, chairwoman of the college’s board of trustees, could not be reached for comment Monday night.
When we go to our doctor’s office for a checkup or a test, we often assume that if we don’t hear back from them, no news must mean good news.
But no news for one woman after a routine test nearly cost her, her life. And experts warn it happens more than you may think.
Susan Daniels enjoys simple moments with her family. It’s time she wasn’t sure she would have.
“Things in life happen for a reason. I don’t know what they are, but I can tell you that I’ve learned a lot through all this,” Daniels says.
Her story began five years ago, when she went to her doctor of 20 years for a pap smear.
When the office didn’t call with results, Daniels thought she was fine. B
ut two years later her doctor discovered a cervical tumor so big it was inoperable. She was referred to Dr. Christine Lee at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Lee says, “This all stemmed from an abnormal pap smear that wasn’t caught.”
Daniels underwent chemo and radiation, but the cancer came back. Dr. Lee gave her two choices: death within a year or have a major surgery to remove all her female parts, her vagina, rectum and bladder.
“I was horrified. I didn’t know if I wanted to live the rest of my life with a colostomy and a urostomy,” says Daniels.
Dr. Lee explains, “Offices get busy and nurses will or well intentioned staff in the office will say it was normal, but it’s actually a different patient’s pap smear. That has also happened.”
While Daniels says she can’t change what happened to her, she hopes her story will help others.
“Don’t assume that no news is fine. Whenever you go and have a test and you pay for those test results, get those test results,” she says.
Since the removal of her vagina, rectum and bladder, Daniels had reconstructive surgery on her vagina and is now cancer-free.
She will also live with a colostomy and urostomy for the rest of her life.
While she says some people encouraged her to take legal action against her doctor, she decided she was just as responsible as he was for getting her results.
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