Levittown

A half-century ago, on Aug. 17, 1957, a momentous battle of the early civil rights movement began in Levittown, Bucks County. William Levitt, then America's leading home builder, had created his mass-produced city with low-cost housing for families fleeing overcrowded apartments and cities throughout the East. The new city was ideal for World War II veterans with G.I. loans, who were attracted by such amenities as swimming pools, recreation centers and minimal traffic. But a massive flaw soon generated a serious crisis.

About 200 cheering construction volunteers, clad in blue or black T-shirts and brilliant white hard hats, marched down a normally quiet Levittown street like a giddy circus parade yesterday morning. And then they did it again, and again, their choreographed fist-pumping and on-camera high fives leaving no doubt as to the "reality" of ABC's hit series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. But no one could question the good will felt by neighbors and the show's producers toward the Kilgallon family, whose termite-ravaged home was flattened at 10:40 a.m., two days into an eight-day production-and-construction blitz set to end Wednesday with a dramatic "reveal.

Young and Ki Moon went to bed Christmas Eve making plans to ship a package to their son in Iraq, an Army sergeant who had surprised them that night with a call from Baghdad. But the Levittown couple's ease didn't last. Army casualty officers visited them Christmas Day to tell them that their son, Jae S. Moon, 21, had died from injuries suffered in a roadside blast. The Moons are grieving the loss of their only son, said Alice Nam, a longtime friend of the Neshaminy High School graduate who spoke for his family.

Neighbors called police frequently to complain about the noisy all-night parties at the Levittown home that Michael S. Perko Sr. shared with his 21-year-old son, Sean. After a party on Nov. 19, a 17-year-old guest complained, too. She told police that Perko, 52, had put his hand down her shirt early in the night. She said she later fell asleep on the couch and woke to find Michael Perko inappropriately touching her body, according to court records. After talking with four other teenage girls who made similar allegations, Middletown police charged Michael Perko with seven counts of indecent assault and five counts of unlawful contact with minors.

They are the most outspoken residents in their communities, challenging authority at every turn. They attend every municipal meeting. They seem to get information before it's public knowledge. They are the gadflies, buzzing the ears of mayors and council members, reporters and editors. A lot of officials don't much like them. A lot of their fellow citizens do. Hal Lefcourt is a gadfly, a very experienced one. At 82, he has been active in Lower Bucks County politics since 1952.

The driver of a minivan involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 21-year-old Levittown man last weekend has confessed and been charged with the crime, the Bristol Township Police Department and Bucks County District Attorney's Office announced yesterday. Jonathan Paul Hernandez, 20, of the 3200 block of Steele Avenue in Bristol Township, went to the police station with his lawyer yesterday to say that he drove the vehicle that killed James Raymond Coyle Jr. as he was walking home from a graduation party, along the 1100 block of Newport Road, early Sunday morning, police said.

Though it happened before her eyes, Amy Herzog didn't believe what she had witnessed - a Chevrolet Suburban barreling through neighbors' yards, ripping out parts of homes, trees and fences before crashing through the living room next door. When it stopped, Herzog said, the driver and his passenger got out and made a mad dash through her yard. "It was like a movie," Herzog said yesterday. "It sounded like everything was crashing all at once. It was just so loud, so extremely loud.

One by one, they read the cards of sorrow and a state House resolution that marked the passing of Maurice Johnson, a man who grew up in Bucks County and was serving in Iraq when he was killed. "His loss came as a shock to all of us serving in the 101st Airborne Division," family friend Gwen Davis read from the card from an Army commander. "Maurice was a man of courage and character. " At Johnson's funeral yesterday, the day after Veterans Day, dozens of relatives, friends, and township and school officials recalled Johnson, 21, in much the same words as his military peers.

Colleen Broe, a Levittown mother who became a national target of outrage over allegations that she illegally duct-taped her foster children, was found not guilty of child-abuse charges last night in Bucks County Court. After more than six hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted Broe, 34, of endangering the welfare of children, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, all felonies. The verdicts, announced at 8:20 p.m., left Broe shaking and sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of her attorney, Andrew Schneider.

Colleen Broe, a Levittown mother who became a national target of outrage over allegations that she illegally duct-taped her foster children, was found not guilty of child-abuse charges last night in Bucks County Court. After more than six hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted Broe, 34, of endangering the welfare of children, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, all felonies. The verdicts, announced at 8:20 p.m., left Broe shaking and sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of her attorney, Andrew Schneider.