Claysburg logger faces more trouble over timber
By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.comHOLLIDAYSBURG - Francis I. Ritchey, the owner of a Claysburg logging company, will face 21 additional charges of stealing timber from rural properties in Blair, Cambria and Somerset counties, according to a court order filed Tuesday in Blair County.
Judge Tim Sullivan granted Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Glenn Parno's request for permission to move the new charges against Ritchey directly to the Court of Common Pleas for trial instead of having a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Craig Ormsby of Roaring Spring.
The charges were filed based on a presentment by the statewide grand jury, which heard testimony from property owners near Duncansville in Blair County, the Lilly area of Cambria County and in Quemahoning Township of Somerset County.
The owners testified that Ritchey, 38, took thousands of dollars' worth of timber from their properties and did not live up to agreements to split the proceeds he received from saw mills for the timber.
The grand jury presentment indicates that Ritchey was stealing timber from the property owners while he was awaiting trial last year for thefts of timber throughout Blair County.
Ritchey was convicted of taking timber from land owned by local residents, PennDOT and the Altoona City Authority last year.
Sullivan sentenced him to a minimum of four years in prison and ordered him to make restitution of $489,728 to property owners in Blair County.
In the new case, Ritchey, who is housed at the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill, is charged with six counts of theft by unlawful taking, four counts of theft by deception, six counts of receiving stolen property, four counts of theft by failure to make disposition of funds and one count of criminal mischief.
Property owner Sandra Cook of Somerset County told the statewide grand jury that Ritchey negotiated a contract with her and her husband to split the proceeds from timber on their 189 acres. Ritchey is charged with timbering the land from Aug. 17, 2008, through Labor Day and selling the wood to sawmills for $4,531. Charges state he gave none of the money to the Cooks.
He allegedly harvested $15,130 worth of trees from Thomas Hollenbeck's 133 acres in Somerset County without returning any money to the land owner.
Other victims included Joseph and Donna Echard of Duncansville and Daniel Monahan, Jerry Bender and Rosemarie Noel, all of Lilly.
Sullivan agreed the prosecution could use the grand jury presentment in place of a preliminary hearing to avoid "the additional and unnecessary expense" of having the witnesses repeat their stories at the magisterial district judge level.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
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righty27
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06-25-09 4:23 AM
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I guess this guy will not be getting out of jail anytime soon.
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