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Cresson man cleared of charges

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury has acquitted a Cresson man of two criminal charges filed in connection with a hit-and-run crash last year in Eldorado.

Frederick Joseph Bradley Jr., 51, took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday and said his pickup truck sustained damage on May 1, 2016, from a crash along Route 22, near Cresson, where he struck a tall post with a reflector. Bradley said he was ill before he crashed and afterward, he drove to his father’s residence in Cresson and slept.

Altoona police accused Bradley of being the driver of a pickup truck that struck a mini-van on May 1, 2016, on the 5700 block of 58th Street, then drove away. The occupants in the van were hurt and described the driver as man in his 50s with pulled-back hair and a goatee or facial hair. Charges were filed two months after the accident.

A witness who pursued the hit-and-run driver got a partial license plate number, which led police to identify Bradley as the suspected driver. Subsequently, police charged him with leaving the scene of an accident involving injuries and leaving the scene of an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle.

In addition to testifying on his own behalf, Bradley’s defense included testimony from a friend, who repaired the truck. The friend said that based on the damage, which included a karate-chop dent on the edge of the hood, his “best guess” was that Bradley’s truck struck a pole or post.

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