CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — A man who was allegedly involved in several thefts of phone line in Paint Township is due in court next week.
Court documents indicate that 48-year-old Edward Michael Stasik, of East Liverpoole, Ohio, is scheduled to stand for a preliminary hearing in Magisterial District Judge Timothy P. Schill’s office at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, August 21, on the following charges:
– Receiving Stolen Property, Felony 3 (seven counts)
– Conspiracy — Receiving Stolen Property, Felony 3
– Theft of Secondary Metals, Felony 3 (seven counts)
– Conspiracy — Theft of Secondary Metal, Felony 3
– Criminal Mischief-Damage Property, Felony 3 (seven counts)
– Conspiracy — Criminal Mischief-Damage Property, Felony 3
Details of the case:
According to a criminal complaint filed on February 5 by State Trooper Steven Manns, the police investigation began after sunset on March 14, 2017, when several Verizon customers lost their phone service. Verizon workers called police when they discovered that a 300-feet section of phone line had been cut down.
This same scenario was repeated seven times: July 10-11, 2017; August 8, 2017; August 24-25, 2017; August 27, 2017; December 4, 2017; and December 11, 2017. Verizon customers lost internet and phone communication almost at random. The trend followed the full moon (allowing working at night without flashlights) but also occurred during daylight hours, the complaint states.
One time a tan car was spotted. On another day, a brown car with an Ohio license plate, registered to a known female was spotted, and an unknown white male with brown hair wearing camouflage drove that car away.
Trail cameras were obtained, residents were asked to monitor their phone lines and call the police immediately if landline service was lost. A helicopter checked the scene and state troopers patrolled the area daily.
On Sunday, January 28, 2018, three days before the full moon, residents detected the phone service was out.
Clarion-based State Police were called, and by 9:14 p.m. troopers were in route. The first trooper observed a Jeep backed in beside the burnt-out Dew Drop Inn. When troopers saw the large black phone-wire cut on the ground, they exited their vehicles and heard people running through the wooded area. Additional troopers were called to the area. A State Police helicopter was requested and Terry Jay Fisher was caught and taken into custody.
The search of the wooded rough terrain was suspended until daylight.
On Monday morning, troopers assembled and began searching. Glenn Jeffries was eventually found hiding in the Dew Drop Inn. A records check indicated Fisher and Jeffries are next-door neighbors, from Santron Avenue, Pittsburgh, in a suburb known as Carrick.
An internet search revealed a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from December 20, 2017, Life and Death on Santron Avenue. The story within that article, along with PA DOT, OH DOT, and records of metal recycling companies, connected four suspects, Glenn Allen Jeffries, Terry Jay Fisher, Autumn Dawn Rudolph, and Edward Michael Stasik to stolen copper telephone wires.
Stasik was arraigned at 11:55 a.m. on June 7, in Magisterial District Judge Timothy P. Schill’s office.
Unable to post $50,000.00 cash bail, he remains lodged in the Clarion County Jail.
Rudolph and Fisher each waived their preliminary hearings on February 27, in Magisterial District Judge Timothy P. Schill’s office.
Rudolph is currently free on $50,000.00 unsecured bail. Fisher’s bail was posted by a professional bondsman in the amount of $5,000.00 on March 22.
Charges against Jeffries were held for court at a preliminary hearing held February 6, in Magisterial District Judge Timothy P. Schill’s office.
He remains lodged in the Clarion County Jail on $50,000.00 monetary bail.
All of the above cases have been transferred to the Clarion County Court of Common Pleas.
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