Embreeville

The Embreeville Center, a state facility for the mentally retarded that last year was the focus of a state investigation into charges of patient abuse, has finally been granted a regular license to operate. For the last two years, Embreeville - the Philadelphia area's only state institution for the retarded - has had to operate under provisional licenses due to its "significant non-compliance" record. Last week it was approved for a full one-year license. The new license will allow Embreeville, in central Chester County, to retain its federal certification and continue receiving about $10 million a year in federal funds.

Chester County Warwick. A wallet and sunglasses were reported stolen from two vehicles in the 3000 block of St. Peters Road on Jan. 21 or 22, state police at Embreeville said. West Bradford. Numerous items were reported stolen during a Jan. 23 break-in at a house on Romansville Road, state police at Embreeville said. West Caln. Michael Syphard, 25, and Shawn Syphard, 21, brothers from Gap, Lancaster County, were accused of stealing a revolver and jewelry from a Telegraph Road house where their grandmother and uncle live, state police at Embreeville said.

EAST FALLOWFIELD - The theft of a TV set from a neighbor's shed led to the arrest of Matthew Wright, 25, of the 100 block of Wilmington Road, township police said. On Thursday, a resident of that block told police someone had broken into a shed behind his house in the past few days and taken the TV. After an investigation, police from East Fallowfield and Coatesville arrested Wright and recovered the TV. He was charged with theft and receiving stolen property. Unless otherwise attributed, the following reports are based on statements of local police.

State police have launched an internal investigation into the way troopers from the Embreeville barracks in Chester County handled a search for a 66- year-old woman who died of hypothermia, police officials said yesterday. The Embreeville commanding officer requested the inquiry after the media reported that troopers did not initiate a full-fledged search for Patricia E. Gray until three to four hours after her daughter reported her missing Feb. 8. Gray was found dead in a snowy field the same day. "There is some question as to what we did," said Trooper Edward Gomez, a police spokesman, "and because there was a death involved and there was publicity in the newspaper, we want to clarify if there was any wrongdoing.

A long-awaited boost in Chester County's state police presence is on the way, a response to the county's staggering growth and dramatic pleas for help from residents. Nearly half of the 35 cadets from this year's graduating class at the state police academy will be assigned to Chester County to shore up the severely understaffed forces at the Embreeville and Avondale barracks. "This does not solve the problem, but it is a big step toward getting more troopers on station," State Sen. Robert Thompson (R., Chester)

A driver involved in an accident that left a 29-year-old motorcyclist with critical injuries on Sunday in Chester County is being sought by state police. Police said a large SUV or truck traveling eastbound on Route 322 near Poplar Road in Honey Brook Township collided with a motorcycle being operated by Joel Benjamin, 29, who was forced off the road and thrown from the vehicle. The motorist did not stop or report the accident and continued eastbound on Route 322, police said. Police said the truck or SUV will have damage to its front passenger-side headlight and will be missing a passenger-side rearview mirror.

The Exchange Club of West Chester honored three state police officers who have been nominated for State Policeman of the Year at a ceremony May 12. An estimated 110 Exchange Club members, state police officers, local government officials and judges joined to praise and congratulate the nominees during the dinner ceremony at the Italian Social Club in West Chester. Trooper Malcolm Murphy of the Media barracks, Trooper Eugene Biagiotti of the Embreeville barracks and trooper Karl Mehn of the Avondale barracks were nominated by their station commanders for "professionalism, heroism, exemplary attitude and community service," according to the nomination guidelines.

The body of a Chester County woman missing since last Saturday was found Thursday night by an off-duty state trooper. State police at the Embreeville barracks said the body of Sherilyn Beall, 34, of West Bradford Township, was discovered in the cargo space of her SUV about 9 p.m. The vehicle was in the parking lot of the East Bradford Plaza shopping center, about three miles from her house. Beall, who worked as a medical claims clerk, had left her house early last Saturday evening after an argument with her husband, Adam, who pushed her to the ground, police said.

Among the ingredients of a teenage tragedy: a Mike's Hard Variety Pack of malt liquor, and a bottle of Southern Comfort. That's what police say a 22-year-old Chester County woman purchased for four Twin Valley High School students hours before the crash that killed two and injured the others. Jessica Lynn Copeland of Honey Brook Township was charged Wednesday with furnishing alcohol to minors and corruption of minors, said state police from the Embreeville barracks. The misdemeanor charges resulted from an investigation into a one-vehicle accident July 16 in Honey Brook Township.

A driver involved in an accident that left a 29-year-old motorcyclist with critical injuries on Sunday in Chester County is being sought by state police. Police said a large SUV or truck traveling eastbound on Route 322 near Poplar Road in Honey Brook Township collided with a motorcycle being operated by Joel Benjamin, 29, who was forced off the road and thrown from the vehicle. The motorist did not stop or report the accident and continued eastbound on Route 322, police said. Police said the truck or SUV will have damage to its front passenger-side headlight and will be missing a passenger-side rearview mirror.

The body of a Chester County woman missing since last Saturday was found Thursday night by an off-duty state trooper. State police at the Embreeville barracks said the body of Sherilyn Beall, 34, of West Bradford Township, was discovered in the cargo space of her SUV about 9 p.m. The vehicle was in the parking lot of the East Bradford Plaza shopping center, about three miles from her house. Beall, who worked as a medical claims clerk, had left her house early last Saturday evening after an argument with her husband, Adam, who pushed her to the ground, police said.

The tiny 95-year-old Embreeville Bridge on Route 162, closed for two years because of flood damage, collapsed into Broad Run as the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation began the task of replacing it in April. That was a problem. Then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovered that PennDot's contractor had not diverted Broad Run to protect the officially designated West Bradford trout stream as the Corps had required. That has turned into an even bigger problem, as work stopped on a project that was supposed to be completed last month.

In 1989, Chester County Court Judge James P. MacElree 2d - acting in his role as a homeowner in Newlin Township - filled out a questionnaire listing recreational activities proposed for the county's Embreeville Park: Sewage treatment was not one of the choices. After checking off options such as picnicking, hunting and cross-country skiing, MacElree added a notation: Let us keep this area as natural and quiet and unobtrusive as possible. Fifteen years later, a dispute over West Bradford Township's use of part of the park for the Marshallton Sewer Project is anything but tranquil.

Shutting a juvenile detention facility on the grounds of the old Embreeville State Hospital could lead to the closing of other juvenile centers and the sale of several hundred acres, officials suggested yesterday. An announcement by the Department of Public Welfare that it would move the SouthEast Secure Treatment Unit to upstate Pennsylvania fed speculation that two other youth treatment centers on the site might also have to move. Doug Oliver, the Welfare Department spokesman, said that, in terms of cost, the state might not be able to justify keeping the site.

Michael W. Miller Sr. called his son early Monday, investigators say, to confess that he "did something terrible. " Hours later, a state police emergency-response unit stormed a Downingtown residence, where it found Miller, 48, critically injured, his brother, Richard A. Miller, 58, dead, and their father, Everett Miller, unhurt. Michael Miller, who was in critical condition at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia last night, was described by state police as a suspect in his brother's killing.

Chester County Warwick. A wallet and sunglasses were reported stolen from two vehicles in the 3000 block of St. Peters Road on Jan. 21 or 22, state police at Embreeville said. West Bradford. Numerous items were reported stolen during a Jan. 23 break-in at a house on Romansville Road, state police at Embreeville said. West Caln. Michael Syphard, 25, and Shawn Syphard, 21, brothers from Gap, Lancaster County, were accused of stealing a revolver and jewelry from a Telegraph Road house where their grandmother and uncle live, state police at Embreeville said.