Police Beat – March 1
WASHINGTON COUNTY
NORTH STRABANE
Aggravated assault charge: Bernard James McNally Jr., 41, of North Strabane, was charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, simple assault and resisting arrest after township police said he choked a woman during an argument Wednesday afternoon inside his Meadowview Drive residence in which he raised her in the air by her neck. Police said he also beat on the woman’s vehicle as she tried to get away from the house. McNally is being held at the Washington County jail on $25,000 bond.
MONONGAHELA
Child pornography charge: Caleb Abiah Beers, 32, of Monongahela, was arrested and charged Wednesday with five felony counts of disseminating films of children engaged in sex acts and one charge of criminal use of a facility after the state Attorney General’s office said he shared child pornography on a public file sharing service Dec. 3. He was arraigned by District Judge Mark Wilson and is being held at the Washington County jail on $50,000 bond.
GREENE COUNTY
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP
Police chase: State police charged a driver who allegedly led them on a brief vehicle chase early Wednesday and then ran away from troopers in Franklin Township. Police said they tried to stop a box van from New York after the driver committed multiple traffic violations on Miller Road shortly before 1 a.m. The driver then got out and ran from the scene before he was stopped by a Greene County sheriff’s police dog, which he allegedly punched multiple times. Police said the man had a passport from the Dominican Republic that appeared to be tampered with, and the suspect gave multiple identifications to troopers. Court documents do not list his name, but a man with the identity of Jeison Stiven Jimenez-Mercedes, 26, is being held at the Greene County jail on charges connected to the incident. He is charged with a felony count of illegally taunting a police animal and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, evading arrest, fleeing police and false identification to police. He is jailed on $15,000 bond.