Probation

Two Delaware County residents have become the first Pennsylvanians convicted under a 2007 state human trafficking law after pleading guilty to the charge, the District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. In addition, Deryck Alston, 41, pleaded guilty to unlawful contact with a minor, and Amanda T. Scott, 26, pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and prostitution. Both reside in Collingdale. A third person, Jerome Clemons Jr., 35, of Collingdale, also was charged in connection to the case.

The Philadelphia Department of Human Services is on probation - again. Officially the state Department of Public Welfare has given the department's Children and Youth Division a six-month provisional license. It's more like being put on probation, which means you're guilty but deserve a chance to do better. This is the seventh time in eight years DHS has been unable to earn the year-long licensing designation assigned to agencies that meet minimum state regulations. Twenty-three children under DHS supervision have died of neglect and abuse since January 1987, and a commissioner - who should have left years ago - stayed so long that even after her departure, her legacy of ineffectiveness lives on. Life is tough in inner cities.

Suffering from serious health problems, former social studies teacher Allan S. Per was sentenced yesterday to two years' probation and 500 hours of community service for his conviction on charges of embezzling $14,000 from Bensalem's Adult Evening School program. Looking gaunt as he sat in a chair during sentencing, Per addressed Bucks County Judge Edward G. Biester Jr. in a soft voice. "I just want to express my extreme remorse for this horrible situation," said Per, 52. "I have to bear this the rest of my life, and I'm terribly sorry.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Casey Anthony won't have to return to Orlando today to start serving probation on check-fraud charges. An assistant in Judge Belvin Perry's office said yesterday that a hearing on the issue has been set for tomorrow. The assistant spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the case. Anthony has been out of public view since she was acquitted by a jury in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was convicted of lying to detectives but was released from jail because of time served.

A county judge has dismissed a case against a Coatesville man who refused, on constitutional grounds, to pay probation fees. Ronald Suber, 33, was sentenced to two years' probation in 1991 in a case stemming from a 1985 fight in a bar. Later that year, the state initiated a $25-a-month fee to recover the costs of supervising people on probation. Suber refused to pay, saying the fee was initiated after he was sentenced. The amount of his fees began to accrue. Under the law, probation cannot end until the fees are paid, so Suber's probation was extended until he agreed to pay up. His attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, argued in court last January that the Constitution guards against a new sentence being imposed after someone has already been punished.

On June 13, John J. Donahue was placed on five years' probation for killing a 78-year-old priest with his souped-up car. He was warned not to drive until his probation was over. But a week later, Donahue was back behind the wheel of the same car that had killed the Rev. Stanislaus Kowal on Dec. 18, 1990. This time his auto collided with a van in Bensalem, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Casey said yesterday. The van driver was not hurt, but a female passenger in Donahue's car complained of neck injuries.

Jeffrey Anderson was sentenced to probation for a year. He lasted about 10 minutes, authorities say. After his sentencing Tuesday on a conviction for auto-stereo theft, Anderson, 28, and his wife, Sabrina Moore, 19, were on their way out of the Delaware County Courthouse complex in Media when they stopped by the juvenile court offices, authorities said. There, Anderson stole a pocketbook that had been left inside a bag on the floor, said Detective Cpl. James B. Cadden of the Delaware County Park Police.

The Allentown-area man accused of swiping the head of the Phillie Phanatic in February has entered a program for first-time offenders. Bernard Bechtel, 38, of Whitehall, Lehigh County, will be placed on probation for two years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Yesterday, he waived his preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge William A. Meehan Jr. on three felony charges of theft, criminal trespass, and receiving stolen property. Bechtel's attorney, Michael McGovern, characterized the husband and father of two as a lifetime Phillies fan who couldn't resist the ultimate piece of team memorabilia.

Marie Noe's tiny children were no match for her madness. With the press of a pillow, she snuffed the lives of Richard, Elizabeth, Jacqueline, Arthur Jr., Constance, Mary Lee, Catherine and Arthur Joseph. The punishment for the killings? The death penalty? Hard time? Nope. Probation. Noe, 70, admitted on Monday to killing eight of her 10 children and was sentenced to 20 years' probation. The Daily News asked people around Center City yesterday if they thought probation was appropriate.

Thirteen defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced last week for their roles in a cockfighting match in Feltonville earlier this year, the District Attorney's Office has announced. Police entered a home Jan. 23 on Loudon Street near 3rd after hearing roosters and commotion coming from the basement. Cops walked in as two birds battled. Only one of the defendants, Ismael Rodriguez, 36, the owner of the house where the cockfight was uncovered, was charged with animal cruelty, a felony.

JIMMY JOHNSON, who went 52-9 and won the 1987 national championship in 5 years at the University of Miami before leaving to become coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tuesday was announced as part of a class of 17 former players and coaches selected for the College Football Hall of Fame. "While winning back-to-back Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys was rewarding, the most fun I had in football was in college," Johnson said. The other coaches to be inducted in December are Phillip Fulmer , who won the first BCS title in 1998 with Tennessee, and R.C. Slocum , the winningest coach in Texas A&M history.

Days after asking to have his conviction overturned, lawyers for the Rutgers University student who spied on his gay roommate kissing a man have asked that he receive probation rather than a jail term. In a 33-page motion loaded with positive personal accounts of Dharun Ravi's character and lack of bias, attorneys urged Judge Glenn Berman to depart from sentencing guidelines that require a jail term for a bias-intimidation conviction. They argued that the judge could apply a legal doctrine known as "the serious injustice standard" to impose a lighter sentence.

A Delaware County man who federal prosecutors say used two different names and social security numbers in a scheme to convert more than $241,000 of Social Security disability benefits for his own use while he was working was sentenced to five years probation today. U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner ordered Anthony Alvin Glass, 67, of Chester, to serve the first 18 months of probation under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $241,119.

A Burlington County farmer who damaged the habitat of a federally protected turtle species by clearing several rows of trees on his 140-acre North Hanover Township farm was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to a year's probation. James Durr, who is deputy mayor of the township, pleaded guilty in January to harassing endangered bog turtles in 2005. He removed the trees along Turtle Creek, upland from the habitat, and didn't think his actions would affect the turtles, he said.

The NCAA put Baylor on three years of probation Wednesday after an investigation turned up hundreds of impermissible telephone calls and text messages sent to prep recruits by coaches and assistants on the basketball teams. The violations were considered to be major infractions, and they were announced less than a week after the Bears won the women's national basketball championship with the first 40-0 season in NCAA history. Akosa Maduegbunam , a 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard from Boston, signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Penn State.

THE NCAA put Baylor on 3 years' probation Wednesday after an investigation turned up hundreds of impermissible telephone calls and text messages sent to recruits by coaches and assistants on the basketball teams. The violations were considered to be major infractions, and they were announced less than a week after the Lady Bears won the national championship with the first 40-0 season in NCAA history. All of the penalties were proposed by the school and accepted by the NCAA after a review of nearly 900,000 phone and text-message records found that 738 texts and 528 calls were against the rules.

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS have accused rap performer Beanie Sigel of thumbing his nose at the criminal-justice system by failing to cooperate with his probation officer. Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, is awaiting sentencing for failing to file income taxes for tax years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentence of three years. Sigel, 38, pleaded guilty to the charges in August. He is expected in federal district court for a status hearing Thursday.

FORBES magazine has released its list of the most overexposed celebrities, and all the mag's advanced analysis got them to the same place Tattle gets to every day. 1. Kim Kardashian 2. Lindsay Lohan 3. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi 4. Nadya "Octomom" Suleman 5. Paris Hilton * Speaking of Lindsay Lohan, she is a free woman. Judge Stephanie Sautner on Thursday ended the long-running probation of the problem-prone actress in a 2007 drunken-driving case, after a string of violations, jail sentences and rehab stints.

All charges have been withdrawn against two of the three juveniles accused in an incident in which a cabdriver and his passenger were assaulted in Center City in January, and a third teen has been given probation after pleading guilty to a single count of simple assault. Assistant District Attorney Paul Goldman said Monday that after a "very thorough investigation," it was determined that two of the teens who were charged had not participated in the assault. The third teen hit the passenger with an open hand through the window of the cab after the two exchanged words, he said.

Dharun Ravi, a promising college student and computer whiz kid, gambled his future on a Middlesex County jury. It appears he lost. The 20-year-old Plainsboro, N.J., resident was convicted of all 15 counts Friday in the Rutgers University webcam spying case, which generated international attention and became a rallying point for gay-rights advocates concerned about the bullying and harassment of gay teens. Ravi was found guilty of invasion of privacy and bias-intimidation charges for using his laptop webcam to spy on his roommate in an intimate encounter with another man on Sept.