House Arrest

Darryl Strawberry's impromptu visit to a Manhattan nightclub this week could land him behind bars for violation of the six-month house arrest sentence handed down at his income tax trial. "We've turned the case over to the probation department," Deputy U.S. Attorney Shirah Neiman said yesterday. The New York Yankees outfielder stopped inside a Manhattan nightclub Monday night without permission from his probation officer. Strawberry was sentenced April 24 to six months' house arrest following his guilty plea to a tax-evasion charge.

The electronic bracelet around Alexander Elkin's ankle alerted no one as he took a detour from work. Meant to monitor Elkin, 45, while he was on house arrest for assault, the device didn't deter him from tracking down and killing his ex-wife, Alla, in a parking lot in the Far Northeast on Oct. 7. Or from murdering Alla's friend, Irina Sulimova, 35, as she stood outside a deli. Seven hours after Elkin killed the women and then himself with a .40-caliber handgun, Bucks County prison officials learned something was wrong.

Eli Karetny, who operated the riverside nightclub that collapsed into the Delaware in 2000 killing three women, was released from house arrest yesterday, angering victims' relatives. Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper said it was "standard" to release house-arrest defendants after they served the minimum sentence. Karetny, 67, of Cherry Hill, passed the minimum of his nine- to 18-month sentence last month, and Woods-Skipper said court personnel who monitor Karetny could be better used on other offenders.

A lot of judges like them. And, for many folks facing time for minor charges, it sure beats going to jail. But for now, the increasingly popular electronic-monitoring anklets that allow nonviolent offenders to serve under house arrest instead of behind bars are in short supply in Philadelphia. Because of that, more than 50 people ordered by judges to begin house arrest are still in jail, waiting for an ankle device to become available. And as more inmates are stuffed into the city's already overcrowded jails, the cost of housing them will increase as well.

It was a mob scene at the Saloon, the popular South Philadelphia restaurant, during a Christmas party for a bunch of wiseguys. And it nearly landed mobster Steven Mazzone back in jail. Instead, Mazzone, 46, was sentenced yesterday to six months of electronically monitored house arrest for violating the terms of his probation by attending what authorities have described as a Cosa Nostra Christmas party Dec. 17. Mazzone, released last year after serving the bulk of a nine-year sentence for racketeering, is currently serving a three-year term of supervised release.

A high-ranking Philadelphia police officer indicted Friday on federal extortion and bribery charges pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate yesterday. Police Inspector Daniel Castro, who had been under 24-hour house arrest over the weekend, is no longer under house arrest. U.S. Magistrate Thomas Reuter removed that condition yesterday before Castro's arraignment but ordered all previous conditions of bail - including no contact with other witnesses - to remain in force. Castro, 47, dressed in a dark-blue suit, white shirt and tie, sat quietly in the courtroom, surrounded by family members.

A man barricaded himself in a house at 8th and Pemberton streets, South Philadelphia, yesterday afternoon, and kept police at bay for nearly seven hours before SWAT team members dragged him from the building.

The prosecutor asked for the big house for the 19-year-old man convicted of trying to throw a cop off a second-floor roof last year. But the judge sent the man to his own house on 5th Street near Cumberland instead. Common Pleas Judge Marlene F. Lachman this week sentenced Jonathan Ruiz to four to 23 months of house arrest, two years' probation and 30 hours of community service. Defense lawyer Louis T. Savino Jr. called his client's action "an aberration. " Savino said Ruiz may have been high on marijuana when the incident occurred during an arrest on a roof on 2nd Street near Diamond Oct. 7. Assistant District Attorney Harry Spaeth said Ruiz was driving a stolen car when he was stopped by cops at Philip and Diamond streets and fled to the roof.

Robert M. Drinane Jr. 18, a University of Delaware freshman, doesn't have much of a summer vacation to look forward to. He'll be under house arrest. Drinane, who last year graduated third in a class of 286 at Conestoga Valley High School, where he was a star athlete and member of the National Honor Society, was charged in August with drunken driving and underage drinking. He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced yesterday by Lancaster County Judge Michael J. Perezous to stay home for the summer.

When "Mrs. Doubtfire" became a hit, it legitimized the idea that divorce could be fodder for broad, formula comedy. On its heels, so to speak, have come movies like "Bye Bye Love" and now "House Arrest," the story of Grover Beindorf (Kyle Howard) a teen-ager who locks Mom and Dad in the basement when he learns they are planning to separate. Grover wants to force his parents (Kevin Pollack and Jamie Lee Curtis) to undergo a kind of punitive therapy - they must resolve their differences, or remain imprisoned.

PITTSBURGH - Former state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin was sentenced Tuesday to house arrest and community service in soup kitchens, and ordered to send handwritten apologies for her crimes on photographs of herself in handcuffs to every judge in the state. She was given no prison time. Allegheny County Court Judge Lester Nauhaus sentenced Melvin to three years of house arrest, with two years on probation to follow. A jury convicted Melvin and her sister Janine Orie on Feb. 21 of using judicial staff, as well as aides to another sister, former State Sen. Jane Orie, to work on Melvin's 2003 and 2009 campaigns for the Supreme Court.

Bail remained at $600,000 Tuesday for the man accused of stealing two vintage vehicles and the South Philadelphia home of a World War II veteran through a yearlong deception scheme. Public defender Beena McDonald asked Judge Nazario Jimenez Jr. at a morning hearing to lower Melvin Mcilwaine's bail to $60,000 and put Mcilwaine on house arrest. She said Mcilwaine, 59, is a married father with three children and has "strong ties to the community. " The prosecutor, Deborah Cooper Nixon, said the alleged scam against Ray White, 88, "is one of the most egregious cases of elderly abuse," adding: "He was scammed out of everything he owned.

The Kaboni Savage racketeering and murder trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia. Savage, 38, a convicted drug dealer, is on trial on charges he ordered a deadly firebombing attack to retaliate against a cooperating witness, and plotted to retaliate against other witnesses. He could face the death penalty if convicted. On Thursday, Savage's lawyer, Christian J. Hoey, cross-examined FBI Special Agent Kevin Lewis. The agent admitted he had "no idea who shot Mr. Savage" at a recreation center in March 2001, when Savage was on house arrest.

While taxpayers are on the hook for more than half the $3.5 million settlement for dozens of people who served time after being arrested by a group of rogue Camden police officers, a retired sergeant convicted in the case has been collecting a $69,000-a-year disability pension from the state. Dan E. Morris, 49, was injured in a car crash in September 2008, and retired Jan. 1, 2010, before federal prosecutors charged him for his role in a campaign by narcotics officers under his command to plant drugs on suspects and steal money from dealers.

A Philadelphia fugitive, awaiting trial on a charge of attempted murder and sought in a sexual assault, was captured Friday in Vermont, authorities said. Clifford Moore, 34, was arrested without incident while riding in a taxicab outside Burlington, where he had been staying at an apartment complex, said Jim Burke, supervisor of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force. An arrest warrant was issued for Moore in connection with a sexual assault in September, Burke said. Moore had been jailed pending a scheduled Oct. 29 attempted-murder trial, but too much time had elapsed since his 2010 arrest under state law requiring a prompt trial.

DENNIS VETERI, the South Jersey man who made headlines in January when a cellphone video of him beating another man in front of Geno's Steaks went viral, will definitely be home for the holidays. Common Pleas Judge Ellen Ceisler on Friday sentenced Veteri, 33, to 11 1/2 to 23 months of house arrest followed by five years of probation for the Jan. 2 beating of off-duty Woodbridge, N.J., cop Neal Auricchio, 31. Assistant District Attorney Francis McCloskey had asked that Veteri be sentenced to 1 1/2 to four years in prison.

A South Jersey Flyers fan was sentenced Friday to house arrest for beating a New York Rangers fan - and off-duty North Jersey police officer - unconscious outside Geno's Steaks in January. Dennis Veteri, 33, of Glassboro, got into an altercation with Neal Auricchio Jr., a police officer in Woodbridge, who was in Philadelphia Jan. 2 to attend the Winter Classic game between the Flyers and Rangers. Veteri was sentenced to 111/2 to 23 months of house arrest and then five years' probation.

Alice Hamilton was a 62-year-old widow suffering from terminal cancer in 2007 when she moved into a nursing home and asked her longtime Bensalem neighbor to handle her affairs. The neighbor, Virginia Marquardt, promptly obtained power of attorney for Hamilton and started spending her money. Marquardt, a former registered nurse, stole nearly $313,000 over the next 41/2 years, for everything from meals at local restaurants to trips to Las Vegas and Mexico, tickets for sporting events and a comedy hypnotist, payments for real estate taxes, and credit card late fees.