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.

A NORTHEAST Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport for allegedly attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane will be staying with mom for a while. U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, Luzerne County, on $25,000 personal-recognizance bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Picklo was stopped by a Transportation Security Administration screener at the airport on Thursday as he attempted to carry what authorities said was an explosive device onto a plane bound for San Francisco.

The curious case of James Cialella came to a close yesterday when a Philadelphia judge sentenced the Iraq War Army veteran to house arrest and probation for shooting a fellow moviegoer on Christmas Day 2008. Cialella, 32, could have been jailed for nine to 16 months for the shooting, which grew from a fight at the United Artists Riverview Plaza theater on Columbus Boulevard during a showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. " Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley instead sentenced Cialella to 11 1/2 to 23 months of house arrest followed by five years of probation.

Tyrene White has never met Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer at the center of a rapidly evolving diplomatic dispute between the United States and China. But she knows that his revelations about the horrors of China's one-child policy - the work that got him tossed into prison - are absolutely accurate. She's done a similar investigation herself. White, an Asia specialist at Swarthmore College, is perhaps the foremost authority in the United States on China's birth-planning laws.

BEIJING - A blind legal activist fled house arrest in his rural China village and made it to a secret location in Beijing on Friday, setting off a frantic police search for him and those who helped him, activists said. U.S. officials would not comment on unconfirmed reports that Chen Guangcheng had sought protection at the U.S. Embassy - a delicate prospect as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials visit China next week for the latest round of the two powers' Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

If The Lady is any indication, Luc Besson, the Paris-born filmmaker behind such testosterone-fueled thrillers as Taken, Transporter 2 , and The Fifth Element, is having a tough time getting in touch with his feminine side. Yes, there was his recent script for Colombiana, but at least as portrayed by Zoe Saldana, that was one tough chick. The Lady, on the other hand, required both elegance and eloquence in telling the story of Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, whose efforts earned her a Nobel Prize.

A Northeast Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport after attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane was released on bail Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, on $25,000 bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Hey said Picklo tested positive for an unspecified substance and was also ordered to undergo drug testing by Pre-Trial Services. If approved in advance by Pre-Trial Services, Picklo, a musician who plays guitar and piano, would also be permitted to leave his mother's home for music jobs for specified hours in the evening.

A NORTHEAST Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport for allegedly attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane will be staying with mom for a while. U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, Luzerne County, on $25,000 personal-recognizance bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Picklo was stopped by a Transportation Security Administration screener at the airport on Thursday as he attempted to carry what authorities said was an explosive device onto a plane bound for San Francisco.

A Northeast Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport for attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane was released on bail Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, on $25,000 personal-recognizance bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Hey said Picklo tested positive for an unspecified substance and was also ordered to undergo drug testing by Pre-Trial Services.

Timothy Bynum tried to get his last job through Facebook. For the next eight years, the 19-year-old Darby Borough man will have to rely on newspaper classified ads. A ban on using the Internet was part of Bynum's sentence after he pleaded guilty Friday to taking up a Facebook solicitation to kill a Southwest Philadelphia woman's boyfriend. Bynum never got the chance to fulfill the contract he made with London Eley, the 19-year-old woman who had issues with her ex-friend and father of her child.

Timothy Bynum tried to get his last job through Facebook. For the next eight years, the 19-year-old Darby Borough man will have to rely on newspaper classified ads. A ban on using the Internet was part of Bynum's sentence after he pleaded guilty Friday to taking up a Facebook solicitation to kill a Southwest Philadelphia woman's boyfriend. Bynum never got the chance to fulfill the contract he made with London Eley, the 19-year-old woman who had issues with her ex-friend and father of her child.

THE THREE men charged with murder in the beating death of a recent Temple University graduate Jan. 14 in the historic district will have a preliminary hearing April 4, a judge ruled yesterday. Defendants Steven Ferguson, 20, of Fox Chase; Kenneth Santiago, 19, of Juniata Park; and Felix Carrillo, 23, of Olney, are being held without bail in the death of Kevin Kless, 23. Defense Attorney Scott Sigman, who represents Carrillo, asked Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni to allow his client to be released on bail or house arrest so he can care for his mother, who has cancer.

STATE COLLEGE - Prosecutors yesterday asked to have Jerry Sandusky kept indoors as part of his bail conditions, citing complaints that the former Penn State football assistant coach was seen outside and watching children in a schoolyard from the back porch of his home, where he is under house-arrest while awaiting trial on child-molestation charges. The state Attorney General's Office argued in a court filing that Sandusky's bail conditions should be revised so that he is not allowed outside except to seek medical treatment.