Pittsburgh man arrested after six-hour SWAT standoff

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Police say a shotgun-wielding Pittsburgh man is under arrest after barricading himself in a home and holding officers at bay for hours.
Charles Rogers will be charged with aggravated assault, criminal trespass, terroristic threats and other charges.
Police say the standoff began around 11:45 a.m. Thursday when the 61-year-old Rogers refused to leave his former home in the city’s Friendship neighborhood.
They say he’d been evicted last week but returned Thursday because he feared losing the home.
Rogers surrendered around 5:30 p.m., after SWAT officers fired tear gas into the home and struck him twice with rubber bullets.
A nearby elementary school, Pittsburgh Montessori, was placed on lockdown and delayed dismissal because of the standoff.
Court records didn’t list a lawyer for Rogers.
Ex-education agency director faces theft sentence
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The former executive director of a western Pennsylvania regional educational agency faces sentencing on charges that she used her work credit card for personal purchases.
Fifty-six-year-old Cecelia Yauger, of Grove City, pleaded guilty in July to one count of theft involving a program that receives federal funds.
Yauger resigned in April 2013 from Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, which provides educational services on a regional basis to students in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.
An audit about $73,000 in questionable purchases she made between 2007 and 2013 with an agency credit card, including at restaurants, pharmacies, department stores and retail outlets.
Yauger apologized when she pleaded guilty and is returning Friday for sentencing by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.
She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Researcher sued in cyanide killing of his wife
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The family of a neurologist who was poisoned has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her husband, a former University of Pittsburgh researcher convicted of murdering her.
Attorney John Gismondi (giz-MAWN’-dee) says the suit is being filed on behalf of Lois Klein, a Towson, Maryland, woman who is the mother of the victim, Dr. Autumn Klein.
A jury last week convicted 66-year-old Dr. Robert Ferrante. He faces sentencing Feb. 4, a formality since his conviction carries an automatic life prison term.
Gismondi says the lawsuit is being filed so Ferrante’s assets – estimated at trial at $2.5 million – can be used to compensate Klein’s family and the couple’s 7-year-old daughter.
Ferrante doesn’t have a civil defense attorney. His criminal attorney says the lawsuit was expected.
Detectives investigate body in suburban creek
BETHEL PARK, Pa. (AP) – Allegheny County homicide detectives were investigating a body found in a creek in an upper middle class Pittsburgh suburb.
The body found Friday morning in Bethel Park appeared to be a man’s and was reportedly not wearing shoes.
A possible cause of death was not immediately released.
The county medical examiner’s office did not immediately release information on the victim’s identity.
Bethel Park is just south of Pittsburgh. The area is not known for violent crime.