Preliminary Hearings

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the public and the press have a constitutional right to attend preliminary hearings in criminal cases. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger declared for the majority of the justices that courtroom doors may be closed only when there is a "substantial probability" that an open hearing would produce publicity damaging to a defendant's right to a fair trial, or when reasonable alternatives to closing the hearing could...

HERE'S WHAT will be making news in Philly this week: CITY COURT Prelim in witness death Philadelphia police and prosecutors believe that Jorge Aldea and his ruthless street gang plotted and carried out the execution-style murder of Rosemary Fernandez-Rivera, a Mexican-born store clerk also known as Reyna Aguirre Alonso. They believe that Aldea, 23, wanted Fernandez-Rivera dead because he believed that she saw him gun down Louis Chevere, 22, Nov. 25, in front of the Caribe Mini Market, on Mutter Street near Westmoreland, in North Philly, where she worked.

The first of more than two dozen scheduled preliminary hearings for the 18 alleged drug dealers arrested during an April 27 drug sweep in West Chester was held last week before District Justice Dawson R. Muth. Charges against seven of eight defendants, each of whom are charged with various counts of selling cocaine, were bound over to the Chester County Court of Common Pleas. The seven were: Charles Jaramillo, no age given, of the 300 block of West Gay Street. Hector Otero, 30, of the first block of Oak Place.

Two Philadelphia men charged in unrelated robbery-murders of immigrant merchants this year waived their rights yesterday to preliminary hearings and agreed to have the charges proceed directly to trials. Lawyers for Thomas Foggy, 19, and Cordell Adams, 24, confirmed the waivers during brief appearances before Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge David C. Shuter. Foggy and Adams, both of whom are in prison without bail pending trial, are accused of involvement in what police have said are two of five robbery-murders of Philadelphia immigrants in recent months.

Preliminary hearings, which have been held in the Criminal Justice Center in Center City since January, will be moved back to the neighborhood police districts in May, the head of the Municipal Court system said yesterday. Municipal Court Administrative Judge Seamus P. McCaffery said he originally moved the hearings to the Justice Center to reduce the number of cases that are dismissed or postponed because witnesses or lawyers fail to show up. The move was designed in part to help defense attorneys who had to run back and forth between criminal trials in the courthouse and hearings in the police districts.

Brian C. Peterson and Amy S. Grossberg, charged with first-degree murder in the death of Grossberg's newborn baby, each waived the right to a preliminary hearing, a court official in Delaware said yesterday. Fred Kirch, chief clerk of the New Castle County Superior Court in Wilmington, said lawyers for both defendants filed court papers indicating they would waive the hearings, which had been scheduled separately for tomorrow. "We waived it, obviously, and obviously there are good reasons why," Peterson's attorney, Joseph Hurley, said yesterday.

Judge William Maruszczak's courtroom is hardly the stuff of Law & Order. Often, there isn't even a prosecutor. Police officers put on criminal cases, outlining only the barest details to persuade the judge to hold a defendant for trial. Victims seldom take the stand. Defense lawyers ask few questions. No stenographer keeps a record. Hearings conclude within minutes. "We move 'em in. We move 'em out," said Maruszczak, a district judge in King of Prussia. "We don't mess around.

A judge ruled yesterday that the younger brother of a North Philadelphia boy beaten to death last week will remain in a foster home, according to the Department of Human Services. Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing for the couple charged in the child's death was postponed until Nov. 9. Desiree Pizarro, 20, and her boyfriend, Victor Santana, 21, were jailed without bail in the Aug. 24 death of Pizarro's 3-year-old son, Luis Rivera Jr. Each is charged with murder, conspiracy, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment.

Charges of welfare fraud have been filed against 18 people whom state officials said failed to report all their income while receiving welfare payments. Authorities said the individuals received welfare payments for which they were ineligible in amounts ranging from $1,156 to $6,263. The charges were filed in District Court in West Chester Sept. 27 by John M. Jarrell of the state Office of the Inspector General after the state Department of Public Welfare reviewed the defendants' payroll records.

POLICE OFFICERS carry off an anti-abortion activist who was among 200 protesting around the Women's Suburban Clinic in Paoli on Wednesday. Police arrested 96 people, some of whom had chained themselves to the clinic's doors and nearby cars, on charges of defiant trespass, disorderly conduct, conspiracy and failure to disperse. All were released on $1 bail pending preliminary hearings. A spokeswoman for the clinic said the protest did not stop any abortions that had been planned for that day.

HERE'S WHAT will be making news in Philly this week: CITY COURT Prelim in witness death Philadelphia police and prosecutors believe that Jorge Aldea and his ruthless street gang plotted and carried out the execution-style murder of Rosemary Fernandez-Rivera, a Mexican-born store clerk also known as Reyna Aguirre Alonso. They believe that Aldea, 23, wanted Fernandez-Rivera dead because he believed that she saw him gun down Louis Chevere, 22, Nov. 25, in front of the Caribe Mini Market, on Mutter Street near Westmoreland, in North Philly, where she worked.

MILWAUKEE - When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate, she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away. The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.

THREE defendants accused of killing a pizza-deliveryman after luring him to a vacant rowhouse in Southwest Philadelphia waived their rights to preliminary hearings yesterday and were ordered held for trial. A fourth defendant in the case, Xylaca Devlin, 18, of Southwest Philadelphia, waived her preliminary hearing Jan. 25 and was held on murder and related charges. Prosecutors and defense attorneys now can begin preparing for the joint trial of Devlin and her co-defendants: Keyona Jones, 18, of Camden County; and Rashad Cheeseboro, 23, and Michael Covington, 21, both of Southwest Philadelphia.

Among the postings on Symantha Hicks' Facebook page are references to drinking "jello shots" and soaking gummy worms in tequila. The alcohol-doused candy received positive reviews on the site from a number of Hicks' students at Valley Forge Military Academy and College. Hicks, a former guidance counselor at the school, now stands accused of providing alcohol to three students and sexually assaulting a fourth. At a preliminary arraignment Thursday, Hicks, 30, of Horsham, stood before District Judge John C. Tuten with her hands clasped behind her back as the charges were outlined.

The preliminary hearing for a former Delaware County assistant district attorney charged in a hit-and-run accident has been continued until another hearing determines if out-of-county judges should be assigned. Michael J. Donohue, 31, is accused of striking and seriously injuring a 14-year-old Havertown boy, and then driving off. Donohue allegedly had been out drinking with coworkers for four hours and was on his way home when the Nov. 4 accident occurred. Donohue has been charged with aggravated assault, accidents involving injury, failing to render aid, reckless driving, and other related crimes.

Let the critics say what they may, Joseph Amendola - the outspoken and often unorthodox lawyer representing former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky - isn't one to be cowed by a little second-guessing. With a client facing 50 sexual-abuse counts, Amendola infamously made Sandusky available for not one, but two interviews with national media last month. With state prosecutors threatening to produce at least eight young men claiming traumatic abuse, he argued that many - if not all - came forward looking for money.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky on Tuesday unexpectedly waived a preliminary hearing on charges he molested 10 boys, a last-minute decision that drew gasps from a packed courtroom and stirred new questions about how and when his case might end. Sandusky's lawyer, Joseph Amendola, said the former Pennsylvania State University coach still planned to fight the charges at trial next year. Amendola said Sandusky decided late Monday to forgo the hearing because he saw no benefit in a proceeding at which most, if not all, of his accusers would have testified, but he would not be allowed to present a defense.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky on Tuesday unexpectedly waived a preliminary hearing on charges he molested 10 boys, a last-minute decision that drew gasps from a packed courtroom and stirred new questions about how and when his case might end. Sandusky's lawyer, Joseph Amendola, said the former Pennsylvania State University coach still planned to fight the charges at trial next year. Amendola said Sandusky decided late Monday to forgo the hearing because he saw no benefit in a proceeding at which most if not all of his accusers would have testified, but at which Sandusky would not be allowed to present a defense.

At least six alleged victims of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky may testify at his preliminary hearing on child-abuse charges next week, according to a lawyer representing one of the young men, who declined to be named. A second source close to the investigation told The Inquirer that the number could be as many as eight but cautioned that prosecutors have not made final plans for the hearing, which is set for Tuesday in Bellefonte, Pa. In other developments, Pennsylvania State University President Rodney Erickson said in an interview with USA Today that he would work to remake the public face of the university, shifting from a football-focused culture to that of a top-notch research institution.