Men accused of taking items from construction sites waive hearing
The two men charged with taking $100,000-plus worth of equipment from residential building sites in Peters, Cecil and South Fayette townships both waived their preliminary hearing Tuesday and will be formally arraigned Dec. 13 in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
The pair, Richard Barry Neill, 29, of 179 Linden Road, North Strabane Township and John I. Ivashchenko, 21, of 391 Bower Hill Road, Peters Township, had their bonds reduced by District Judge James Ellis to $100,000 unsecured and are cooperating with police officers in the investigation.
Ivashchenko is out on bail, while as of Tuesday, Neill was in Washington County Jail, according to jail records.
The men were arrested on Sept. 2 when a Peters Township police officer spotted them taking a piece of construction equipment, a Bobcat skid loader on a trailer, from the Ironwood Estates residential development.
When questioned by police, the men could not provide a legitimate reason for why they were in a new construction neighborhood was past midnight, police said. Police also found a large silver toolbox that had been reported stolen in the back of Ivashchenko’s pickup truck, according to court records, which state that Ivashchenko admitted to taking power tools and equipment from the Anthony Farms site in Peters, along with sites in Cecil and South Fayette.
Both Neill and Ivashchenko are charged with criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy, criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Neill also is charged with driving with a suspended or revoked drivers license.
Most of the items, which were stolen between April and September, have been recovered and soon will be released to the owners. The criminal complaint states that many of the missing items were taken to Neill’s Linden Road residence and have since been recovered from that location