Nearby: Brian Flesher Charged With String of Burglaries in Pine, Other Communities

Break-ins occurred in McCandless, Franklin Park, Ross, Pine, Ohio and Moon townships.

When Brian Flesher met with police at the beginning of December, he told them he wanted to get everything out in the open so he could begin to get help for his drug addiction, according to a criminal complaint. "Everything" included burglaries at homes and a business in McCandless, Franklin Park, Ross, Pine, and Ohio townships, court documents state. The 26-year-old Pittsburgh man now sits in the Allegheny County Jail, unable to post bail, facing a multitude of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy charges.  Flesher also is charged in Moon Township with stealing jewelry from a Shafer Road home.   In nearly every burglary, Flesher kicked in a side or rear door to gain entry into the home; he told police he …

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Around the Rivers

Around The Rivers: A 'CopBlock' Tape, a Rocking 'Cindystock,' a WPIAL Ruling and a Notable Birthday

Here's a review of the week's headlines from around our region's Three Rivers.

Muggles in Patch communities spent much of last week assembling costumes and stocking up on supplies of chocolate frogs, acid pops -- and maybe even a magic spell or two? -- in anticipation of the local premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II." Patch kept you up to date on local Potter-mania, and it brought you plenty of other stories as well from Around the Rivers over the past week. Among them:   "Pittsburgh CopBlock" Documents Moon Police An activist group that calls itself Pittsburgh CopBlock has cast its lens on Moon Township Police, among others, as it records videotapes of police incidents around the region and posts them on YouTube. Pittsburgh CopBlock is an offshoot of the national CopBlock.org. According to the…

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Poplawski Trial: Local Police Attend to Support Slain Pittsburgh Officers

Testimony began Monday in the trial of Richard Poplawski, the accused killer of three Pittsburgh police officers in 2009.

Police from Moon Township, Ross Township and other Patch communities joined dozens of uniformed state troopers and Pittsburgh and municipal officers who lined the streets Monday outside the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown. Solemn officers stood side by side to show support for the families of slain Pittsburgh Police Officers Paul J. Sciullo II, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric G. Kelly, who died in a shootout after responding to a domestic dispute on April 4, 2009. The homicide trial for Richard Poplawski, the man charged with ambushing the officers outside his mother's home in Stanton Heights, began Monday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Poplawski, 24, who also …

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