News Release

A St. Thomas, Pa., woman was killed Thursday when her car collided with a tractor-trailer in the 500 block of Shippensburg Road in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania State Police said. Rhonda S. Eberly, 41, was pronounced dead at Chambersburg Hospital, Franklin County Coroner Jeffrey R. Conner said in a news release. Cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma to the head and chest. The accident occurred at about 1 p.m., when Eberly was traveling south on Shippensburg Road (Pa. 696)

With the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America reviewing its membership standards with respect to sexual orientation, the Mason-Dixon Council has scheduled two meetings to provide a fact-based dialogue, the council said Friday in a news release. The first meeting will be held Monday, March 11, in the Northern Middle School auditorium, in Hagerstown, at 7 p.m. The second meeting will be held Monday, March 18, in Greencastle-Antrim High School auditorium, in Greencastle, Pa., at 7 p.m. Volunteer facilitators from the Mason-Dixon Council, along with Area 6 representatives and members of the council leadership team including the president, commissioner and scout executive will provide information on the national process to review membership standards which may result in a vote at the national annual meeting in May. “We encourage our parents, unit leaders, committee members, charter representatives and council and district volunteers to attend one of these meetings,” the news release says.

A man wanted by the West Virginia State Police on six counts of sexual abuse of a minor was arrested last month by members of the Mountain State Fugitive Task force, a deputy U.S. Marshal announced Friday. Donald Freedman Graham, 29, of Kearneysville, W.Va., was arrested Feb. 27 after task force members converged on a mobile home where he was located, according to a news release from deputy U.S. Marshal Jon LaLiberte. The case pending against Graham was investigated by State Police Trooper W.R. Garrett and LaLiberte said in the news that additional victims were identified and interviewed after the man's arrest.

Ed Lough has been appointed to the Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission, a Washington County official announced Thursday in a news release. Lough, a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, will serve as the EDC's Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce representative, fulfilling the unexpired term of Hagerstown Downtown Manager Andrew Sargent, according to the release. Officially appointed April 2, Lough will be eligible to serve two additional three-year terms at the conclusion of his first term, which ends June 30, 2014.

Three people were charged with harassment after an altercation that resulted from someone allegedly throwing urine into a car, Mercersburg police said in a news release. Police said a 17-year-old boy, who owned the car, confronted Wayne Thomas Kearns Jr., 26, of Mercersburg, about the urine incident in the Uni-Mart parking lot at about 8 p.m. on Oct. 5. In that altercation, Kristi Marie Divens, 27, of Mercersburg, allegedly hit the boy in the side of the face, police said. The teen, Kearns and Divens were all charged with harassment, according to the news release.

BOONSBORO -- Deputies Friday morning were searching for a Boonsboro girl who left her home early Thursday morning, Sgt. Roy Harsh said in a news release. Kathleen Elizabeth Welch, 13, was reported missing at 3:31 a.m. Thursday. The girl left a note saying she was leaving the state, and that if anyone tried to find her she would hurt herself, deputies said in a news release Thursday. Kathleen was described as white, about 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds.

A Hagerstown man allegedly threatened to burn down his sister's house and chased her with a knife during an argument on Wednesday, the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office said. Randy L. Sigler, 49, was charged with first- and second-degree assault, disorderly intoxication and two counts of threatening arson, the fire marshal's office said in a news release. The fight happened at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday at Shirley Ann Finniff's home at 13610 Grandview Drive, which is off Maugans Avenue, north of Hagerstown.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - The death of a man who went over the Md. 34 bridge that crosses the Potomac River Saturday afternoon has been ruled a suicide, according to the Shepherdstown Police Department. Witnesses said they saw the man jump, according to a news release from the police department. The man landed on the ground below the bridge, not in the water, police said. Police said in the news release they are not identifying the man at the request of his family. Shepherdstown Police Chief Terry Bellomy declined to answer questions about the incident Tuesday.

A Tuscarora Area Chamber of Commerce sign sustained significant damage Friday or Saturday in a hit-and-run accident, Mercersburg police said in a news release. Police said a vehicle hit the sign in the 400 block of Loudon Road while negotiating a curve. Half the sign fell to the ground. The vehicle “went between a power pole and guide wire, striking the guide wire with its left front,” the news release stated. Police said they believe a maroon Dodge pickup truck might have been the striking vehicle, as the driver might have stopped to assess the damage after continuing on to Fox Drive.

The Maryland Comptroller's Office said its Field Enforcement Division confiscated 8,000 packs of contraband cigarettes in Washington County on Thursday. The comptroller's office wrote in a news release that Henry A. Badia, 33, of New York, N.Y., was charged with transporting contraband cigarettes, a felony, and possession of contraband cigarettes, a misdemeanor. Badia was driving a vehicle with New Jersey license plates on Interstate 70 near Hagerstown, the news release says. The vehicle was confiscated and Badia was released on $3,000 bond, the comptroller's office said.