CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — A man who was involved in several utility line thefts in Paint Township was sentenced to time served last week.
On Wednesday, February 6, President Judge James Arner sentenced 49-year-old Edward Michael Stasik, of East Liverpoole, Ohio, to a minimum of 77 days to a maximum of one year less one-day incarceration on one first-degree misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property.
He received credit for 77 days served and was given immediate parole.
Stasik was also ordered to pay $20,367.71 in restitution in conjunction with co-defendants Glenn Allen Jeffries and Terry Jay Fisher.
Stasik pleaded guilty to the above charge on January 9, 2019.
As a result of the plea negotiation, the following charges were dismissed:
– Receiving Stolen Property, Felony 3 (six 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, of PSP Clarion, the 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, according to the complaint.
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 with Magisterial District Judge Timothy P. Schill presiding.
Cases against the other defendants have also been transferred to the Clarion County Court of Common Pleas.
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