Pa. police round up those with outstanding warrants

July 22, 1999|By DON AINES

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A knock on the door Thursday morning meant a trip to a district justice's office for at least 18 people who had outstanding warrants in Franklin County.

A multi-agency force fanned out across the county at 6 a.m. to round up people who had bench warrants or outstanding criminal warrants issued during the past two years, according to Pennsylvania State Trooper Edward Asbury.

State troopers, Franklin County Sheriff's deputies and police from Chambersburg, Waynesboro and Greencastle rounded up seven people from Chambersburg, five people from the Waynesboro area, and one each from St. Thomas, Fayetteville, South Mountain and Roxbury, police said. A South Carolina man and a person whose address was unknown also were taken into custody, police said.

The offenses for which they were wanted ranged from county court bench warrants for nonsupport, failure to pay fines and failure to obey a jury summons to terroristic threats, a parole violation and four counts of forgery.

"We have felonies. We have misdemeanors, summaries, traffic violations," said Chambersburg Police Chief Michael T. DeFrank. "We targeted about 100 people today."

"We took into consideration the seriousness of the offense and the age of the warrants," DeFrank said.

Asbury said four teams of up to 12 members each went to different parts of the county. Those teams then broke up into smaller groups to apprehend the individuals. Two state police K-9 teams assisted the officers, Asbury said.

County Sheriff Robert Wollyung, who supplied two deputies for the sweep, said his office has about 500 bench warrants at any one time. He said he was happy to supply manpower "to help reduce the number of outstanding warrants" for his department and the district justices.

Wollyung said nine people with outstanding bench warrants issued by the county court were caught Thursday.

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